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*[[1873]]
*[[1874]]
The 1874 epidemic killed 354 of Pensacola's 1400 residents. In the mistaken belief that the disease was usually transmitted by day, victims were buried in the cemetery at night by the light of lanterns.<ref>[Zemenick, D.J. http://barrierislandgirl.blogspot.com/2006/10/st-michaels-cemetery-history-of.html "St. Michael's Cemetery - History of Pensacola"]</ref> Actually, the <i>''Aedes aegypti</i> '' mosquito that transmits yellow fever generally bites at night.<ref name="Straight">Straight, William.["Yellow Fever at Miami: The Epidemic of 1899" http://digitalcollections.fiu.edu/tequesta/files/1995/95_1_02.pdf]</ref>
Commodore Melanchton B. Woolsey, commandant of the Navy Yard, correctly believed that yellow fever was transmitted by mosquitoes, some years before this was demonstrated scientifically. "He erroneously believed, as others did also, that disease carrying mosquitoes could only fly a few feet high. So Woolsey moved into the third-story cupola. He got his meals, rum (which he claimed was a 'tonic' against the fever) and tobacco for his pipe by lowering a basket on a rope from one of the cupola's windows. One day his servant forgot the rum! Woolsey died soon thereafter."<ref>[http://benefits.military.com/misc/installations/Base_Content.jsp?id=1080 "Military.com Installation Guide"]</ref> Shortly before the epidemic began, Woolsey had received orders to transfer to a northern post, but he had chosen to remain on duty in Pensacola.<ref>[http://famousamericans.net/melanchtontaylorwoolsey/ "Virtual American Biographies"]</ref>.
I carried the disease in a severe form to my wife, who was far from the infected locality, and who communicated it to my youngest child."
Dr. Hargis had a vague idea that something in the air expedited the transmission of the disease, but did not state that that mosquitoes were involved: "Certain unknown conditions of the atmosphere obtain at times, which favor the reproduction and dissemination of the <i>''morbific principle</i>'', and when this occurs, no means of disinfection or of staying its progress known to sanitarians are adequate to destroy it, or even mitigate or lessen its potency."
Dr. Hargis reported "exceedingly stringent precautions around our city to prevent refugees communicating the disease."<ref>Hargis, R.B.S. [http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2272478 "The Pensacola Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1882"]</ref>
