ted for the doing of the work. The only bid received was from
Dady & Co., and the Washington authorities refused to sanction
acceptance of it on the ground that it was too high. The plans were
altered and new bids solicited, and the Havana Ayuntamiento voted to
award the contract to the lowest bidders, McGivney & Rokeby. But before
the contract was closed Dady & Co. on a plea of having misunderstood the
plans offered a reduction of their bid below that of their competitors;
whereupon the Ayuntamiento reconsidered its vote and ordered the
contract to be made with Dady & Co. But the Washington authorities
refused to sanction this change, apparently being averse to letting Dady
& Co. have the job at any figure, and the result was that the whole
matter remained at a deadlock until after the end of the American
occupation.

From some points of view the greatest achievement of General Wood's
administration was that of the conquest of disease, and it was one in
which he as a physician and man of science took peculiar interest. When
he fought and temporarily overcame yellow fever at Santiago, there was
no application of the immortal theory of Dr. Finlay, but it was supposed
that the pestilence spontaneously arose from filth. The same was true of
General Ludlow's subsequent cleansing of Havana; he supposing that by
the removal of filth the sources of infection would be removed. But when
he observed that the dreaded disease occurred where there was no filth,
General Wood concluded that it must have another source, and decided to
give Dr. Finlay's theory a practical test. In 1900 therefore a medical
commission was formed, composed of Drs. Walter Reed, U. S. A., James
Carroll, Aristides Agramonte, and Jesse W. Lazear, who, with the heroic
cooperation of soldiers of the United States army, who were willing to
risk their lives in experiments for the welfare of humanity, undertook
an elaborate series of demonstrations which were epochal in the history
not alone of Cuba but also of the whole world.

Reed took the initiative. He applied to General Wood for permission to
undertake the work, including the conducting of experiments on persons
who were not immune against the fever, which of course was a most
perilous venture. He also asked for a considerable sum of money with
which to reward volunteers who would thus submit themselves to deadly
peril. General Wood did not hesitate for a moment. He granted the
permission, appropriated the m