188 



Then he allowed this interest to become a part of the deeper 

 lying portion of his life's current. 



Additional instances of the disease came to notice in Cin- 

 cinnati's general hospital but Europe's war was a more intrigu- 

 ing proposition, wherefore for the colleagues and the public, 

 interest in "rabbit fever" slumbered. One of his playmates (in 

 1924!) asked if C Pascheff (of Sofia) had not "discovered" 

 the disease. Pascheff had described it (in 1915), had even 

 transmitted it to laboratory animals. But he had done this 

 as a double infection, falling into error by describing the 

 accompanying organism as the essential "cause" of the disease. 



After the War (in 1919) E E Francis (forty-seven, M D 

 out of Cincinnati, long of the staff of the USPH&MHS) 

 began exhumation of the stiff. He had discovered that the 

 "deer-fly fever" of Idaho and Montana was infection in man 

 with B tularense; also, that it was carried from rabbits to men 

 by the bite of this fly. This was scientific confirmation of the 

 voodoo belief of northwest deer killers. But back in 1912, 

 McCoy had already shown that fleas could do it. In 1921 

 Francis rechristened Wherry's "rabbit-fever" (the name first 

 given tularense infection by a newspaper scout) tularemia. 

 Now many men with many articles added to the "literature" 

 of the subject. One even wrote a book; but all never learned, 

 or forgot, the by this time ancient history here set down. It 

 was even proposed to call the disease by a man's name — though 

 not that of McCoy or Wherry — but this fervor died. In 1925 

 Wherry was active upon the only item left untouched in his 

 brief publications — that of the treatment of the disease. But 

 its discussion is more properly taken up later. 



THE tularense studies had carried Wherry into the new 

 year of 1914. All day, each day, he had cultured, inocu- 

 lated, autopsied, peered for hours through his so beloved Zeiss 

 apochromatic 3 mm 1,40 oil immersion. The Christmas 

 holidays had made no difference. Young Wolfgang Ostwald, 

 invited of Wherry as head of Cincinnati's research society to 

 lecture on colloids, came. They had long discussions together 

 of matters biological (Ostwald had been born such, too) . The 

 latter departed, declaring himself "captivated of Wherry." 



