The American Plague - Molly Caldwell Crosby [59]
Lazear was enthusiastic about his work with yellow fever and the theory of Cuban physician Carlos Finlay, the scientist who had put forth a theory that the fever was spread by mosquitoes. Once the connection between malaria and mosquitoes was made, Finlay’s theory seemed all the more plausible to Lazear. Finlay was thrilled when Lazear approached him about his theory. Finlay was now in his sixties with long burnside whiskers. It had been twenty years since he first proposed his theory; the mad scientist would finally be given the chance to be taken seriously.
As the sky grew plum colored, and the music had long since silenced, Reed sat with the other doctors on the veranda and talked about medicine. But most of all, they discussed yellow fever. Reed’s interest was tireless.
When Reed finished his investigation of electrozone, he sailed back to the States to give his opinion of the disinfectant to Surgeon General Sternberg. Though Sternberg had sent Reed to Camp Columbia on orders to examine the disinfectant, it’s more likely that he wanted to pique Reed’s interest in yellow fever. It is not known whether Reed approached the surgeon general about a yellow fever study, or if Sternberg proposed the idea to Reed, but in the end, it was a moot point. In less than two months time, Reed would be on his way back to Camp Columbia.
After Reed left Cuba, Lazear’s work continued as it had before. He spent his days in the hospital or lab and his nights at home with his wife, Mabel, and their one-year-old son, Houston.
Jesse Lazear met Mabel in Europe, where they were both traveling with their mothers. Mabel was described as a young lady with expressive eyes and an intriguing introspective appearance. Like Lazear, she had a love of the outdoors, and at her family ranch in California, Lazear and Mabel had enjoyed trout fishing, hunting and climbing together. They married on September 8, 1896, in San Francisco when Lazear was thirty and Mabel was twenty-two years old. They settled in Baltimore, and Houston was born three years later. All three moved to Cuba the following year when Lazear joined the army as a contract surgeon. Considering the Victorian age, it is not unusual that there is no mention in any correspondence about the fact that Mabel was four months pregnant with their second child when they arrived in Havana.
Lazear thrived during those first few months in Cuba. He wrote to his mother, “We were surprised to find Havana a most beautiful city, entirely unlike anything we had ever seen before. The color effects are charming—wonderful greens and pinks. There are numerous fine gardens with magnificent palms and flowers.”
Lazear kept a ribbon-bound photo album of their stay in Cuba. The recent invention of the Kodak box camera allowed for the first time average people to take snapshots of their lives candidly, rather than posed formally in front of a photographer. In his album, Lazear pasted pictures of Cuban landscape, Havana street scenes and his family: Houston toddling through a grass field; Mabel, with the sea air blowing strands of her hair from its bun, holding Houston and a toy guitar on the beach. The last photo in the album is a loose-leaf one of Jesse Lazear. He sits on a wooden fence with mountains in the background. The snapshot is a striking difference from the posed, stiff photos of recent times. His posture is relaxed as he perches on the top board of the fence, his two feet balancing him. His arms rest on his legs, his hands folded one over the other in the middle. He is dressed casually with a