Medicine: Agramonte v. Noguchi

Dr. Hideyo Noguchi, native of Japan, researcher in yellow fever for the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, died in West Africa, of yellow fever (TIME, May 21 et seq.). People called him a martyr to science. He left an estate of only $12,000. Last week, the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research announced that it would award a suitable pension to the widow of Martyr Noguchi. Another distinguished yellow fever worker is Dr. Aristides Agramonte, native of Havana, Cuba. He is the sole surviving member of the heroic Army Commission of the U. S., which in 1900 went into Cuba determined to clear up the mystery of yellow fever. They submitted their bodies to the bite of infected mosquitoes and established beyond dispute that yellow fever is transmitted by the bite of infected mosquitoes of the species Stegomyia fasciata. But the commission was unable to identify the germ. Since then there have been many attempts, many false alarms. Researcher Noguchi's Leptospira icteroides has received scientific support; has come closest to being accepted as the organism responsible for yellow fever. Survivor Agramonte was never satisfied with its credentials. Both before and after Noguchi's death by yellow fever he has pointed out the similarity between Noguchi's leptospira and the leptospira which causes Leptospiral Jaundice (Weil's Disease); has claimed they are one and the same organism. Other wary workers have also suspected this to be the case. To TIME, Dr. Agramonte wrote: