WALTER REED Physician Born in 1851 - Died in 1902 Enter your search terms Submit search form   Web gardenofpraise.com

Walter Reed, an American medical doctor had received his medical degree by the time he was 18 years old. He married Emilie Lawrence and they had two children, a son and a daughter. They also adopted an Indian girl.

Walter was a very young doctor. He thought he might have more opportunities for advancement if he joined the military, so he joined the Army and became a captain. For 16 years he served in an outpost * far away from other doctors. At one time he was looking after several hundred Indians. He wanted to be able to study and learn more about medicine, so he asked for a four month leave. He learned so well they allowed him to study for seven months at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

He continued to study and do experiments at the Army outpost. He and some other doctors studied typhoid fever * . The disease was rampant in the army camps. Many times people were carriers of the disease without having the symptoms themselves. They would be among the other soldiers carrying the disease and then those soldiers would become sick and die. Sanitary conditions were poor. People would not wash their hands before eating and then would become ill. Reed and the other doctors could recommend better sanitary conditions, but they couldn't order them. Flies would also transfer the disease from human waste to food.

Yellow fever * was a dreaded disease. 90,000 people in the United States had died of the disease. Thousands of American soldiers in Cuba had died also. Reed observed that people who cared for the patients with yellow fever didn't usually get the disease. His conclusion : people didn't catch it from each other.

Reed began looking for answers. He remembered the research they had done on typhoid fever. He wondered if maybe mosquitoes might be spreading it. Some of the doctors and soldiers volunteered to take part in the experiment.

The mosquitoes were put in test tubes. First they bit the arms of men who already had yellow fever. Then they were allowed to bite the arms of people who didn't have the disease. After many tests, they decided the mosquito did carry the disease from one person to another.

Modern day mosquito experiment

The next step was to get rid of the mosquitoes. They sprayed the areas of water where the mosquitoes were hatching, with chemicals. This stopped the spread of the disease.

Reed's success with stopping the spread of yellow fever made it possible for the building of the Panama Canal where previously the mosquitoes had caused so much death due to the disease.

The Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C. is named in honor of him.

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Walter Reed picture and article from Walter Reed Army Medical Center Walter Reed from Wikipedia Walter Reed from the University of Virginia Walter Reed's Birthplace Yellow Fever Yellow Fever and the Reed Commission Walter Reed and Typhoid Fever details of his crusade against the disease

Your Story Hour Volume 6 - Audiobook on CD By Your Story Hour Like old-time radio, these 24 riveting historic dramas bring to life exciting chapters from America's past. Backed by music and sound effects, a professional cast re-enacts the tests and triumphs of both celebrated and lesser known people such as Benjamin Franklin, Belva Ann Lockwood, Walter Reed, Booker T. Washington, and Glenn Cunningham. 12 one-hour CDs in a vinyl storage case.

From Word Central's Student Dictionary
by Merriam - Webster
(Pronunciation note: the schwa sound is shown by ə)

outpost
Pronunciation: 'aut-"pOst
Function: noun
.... : a settlement on a frontier or in a faraway place

typhoid fever
Function: noun
: a disease that is caused by a bacteria, is characterized especially by fever, diarrhea, weakness, headache, and an inflamed intestine, and is passed from one person to another in dirty food or water

yellow fever
Function: noun
: a destructive infectious disease of warm regions marked by yellowness of the skin, intestinal bleeding, and vomiting and caused by a virus transmitted by a mosquito -- called also yellow jack

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Biographies in this Series

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Presidents of the United States	George Washington	John Adams	Thomas Jefferson	James Madison	James Monroe	Andrew Jackson
	Abraham Lincoln	Theodore Roosevelt	Franklin D. Roosevelt	John F. Kennedy	Ronald Reagan	Barack Obama
American Patriots	Benjamin Franklin	Francis Scott Key	Deborah Sampson
World Leaders	Constantine	Alexander the Great	Winston Churchill
Inventors	Alexander Graham Bell	Johann Gutenberg	Cyrus McCormick	The Wright Brothers	Henry Ford	Thomas A. Edison
	Sequoyah	Nikola Tesla
Explorers	Christopher Columbus	Meriwether Lewis	Robert Peary	John Muir	Matthew Henson	Sir Edmund Hillary
	Kit Carson	"Johnny Appleseed"
Women who made a difference	Clara Barton	Helen Keller	Florence Nightingale	Joan of Arc	Amelia Earhart	Annie Oakley
	Susan B. Anthony	Elizabeth Keckly	Harriet Tubman	Anne Frank	Eleanor Roosevelt
Scientists	George Washington Carver	Sir Isaac Newton	Marie Curie	Louis Pasteur	Albert Einstein	Galileo
	Lise Meitner
Educators	Noah Webster	Booker T. Washington	Aristotle
Physicians	Hippocrates	Walter Reed	Albert Schweitzer
Religious Leaders	Increase Mather
Athletes	Lou Gehrig	Wilma Rudolph	Tiger Woods	Michael Phelps
Civil Rights Leaders	Martin Luther King	Rosa Parks	Sojourner Truth	Frederick Douglass	Mary Ann Shadd Cary	James Forten
	Gandhi	César Chávez
Composers	Beethoven
Artists	John James Audubon	Gutzon Borglum	Ansel Adams

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