1 Ro or § uuiea pi§ s resulted in the production of multiple areas of 

 necrosis just like those in the human case and was followed 

 by septicemia and death within a very few days. . . . Some 

 experiments showed that death might occur when infectious 

 material was simply placed on the uninjured mucous mem- 

 brane of the eye or nose. 



These things showed how burningly infectious his micro- 

 organism was. Worse yet was the story of "guinea-pig 39." 

 It had eaten "most of the spleen of guinea-pig 3 3 chopped up 

 and mixed with bread. It died in three days and showed char- 

 acteristic changes in the liver and spleen and involvement of 

 the cervical glands." Excellent descriptions of the organic 

 changes followed the accounts of his experiments, along with 

 beautiful colored plates (this was the invariable expression of 

 enthusiasm and satisfaction in his work on Wherry's part) . 



Could this so highly virulent organism be tamed a bit; or 

 could it be made yet more deadly? Mere cultivation in the 

 laboratory did not act toward the former end; nor the com- 

 monly practiced passage from animal to animal toward the 

 latter. In both instances the newly infected just laid down 

 and died in five days. Asking now which of the animals com- 

 monly seen about a farm might prove the most likely "hosts" 

 of the disease germ, he discovered that the ordinary domesti- 

 cated stock was rather resistant; but all manner of "rodents" 

 went out promptly. In Ohio and vicinity this meant the rab- 

 bits, the squirrels, the rats, the mice and, of course, their 

 imported South American cousins, the guinea pigs. Where- 

 after (out of a "case report" again!) came the philosophic 

 kernel : 



Our findings indicate that this disease is widespread among 

 rodents ... it may someday take its place along with B 

 pestis as a menace to man. 



THOUGH Wherry had isolated his organism indepen- 

 dently, and that by cultural and staining methods 

 essentially his own, he now found its general characteristics to 

 be identical with those of an organism isolated from the Cali- 

 fornia ground squirrel by Geo W McCoy (and Charles W 



