Reed and his team first employed the infected clothing building on November 30, 1900. Three American volunteers entered the building to spend the night. They unpacked additional soiled clothes and began shaking them to spread any possible fomites. The stench from the items, soiled with bloody discharges, was so strong that one of the men had to run outside to vomit. For the next twenty nights, the three men slept in the building amidst the filthy items. During the day, they stayed together in one of the nearby tents.

Tests in the mosquito building commenced on December 21, 1900. Fifteen mosquitoes that had fed blood from yellow fever victims, were released into the larger compartment of the building. An American volunteer, John Moran, entered the larger compartment and lay down on the bed, dressed in sleeping garments. Three other Americans, including Walter Reed, entered the smaller compartment, separated from Moran by the screen partition. Over the next two days, during three sessions, Moran was bitten by numerous mosquitoes. The large compartment was then locked, but the three men in the smaller compartment continued to sleep in that space for nearly three weeks.

Diagram of experiments conducted in Mosquito Building, No. 2

List of men undergoing yellow fever experiments