54 TEQUESTA


 In their stables we found 15 new surreys, buckboards, landaus,
 carriages and phaetons, all of the latest patterns and handsome
 beyond description, worth from $300 to $500 each... .Thirty-six
 head of horses were shipped from Niagra Falls last Saturday
 and are expected to arrive here at once.... [The] company is look-
 ing forward to the best winter business in the history of Mi-
 ami.54


 The Statistics

 Although the first case appeared on August 31, according to the
published record, the yellow fever epidemic in Miami officially began
October 17, 1899, and ended January 15, 1900. There were 220
cases, with 13 percent of the city's residents infected; 14 deaths
resulted, which was a mortality rate of 6.4 percent of the city's
populace.
 For the most part the epidemic remained localized; there were
no cases in Coconut Grove, Buena Vista, Lemon City or Little River."
One citizen attributed the confinement of the disease to the "Miami
River Valley" to the emptying of sewage into the river. He suggested
a sewer outfall in the bay at the foot of Flagler Street and as far out
as the ship channel. He also suggested that the falls in the river,
located near its headwaters less than five miles west of downtown,
be "blown up" to drain the Everglades and produce a more vigorous
flow that would carry away the sewage that caused "the polluted
vapor from the river settling on the city through the night and early
morning."56

 Epilogue

 Four physicians appointed by the Surgeon General of the United
States Army, commonly referred to as the Reed Commission, con-
ducted medical research experiments in Cuba. In 1900, their experi-
ments proved conclusively that mosquitoes transmitted yellow fever,
a hypothesis long championed by Cuban physician, Carlos J. Finlay."
 On October 27, 1900, the Reed Commission announced its find-
ings: "The mosquito serves as the intermediate host for the parasite
of yellow fever, and it is highly probable that the disease is only
propagated through the bite of this insect.""58 The specific mosquito