250 Wild Bird Guests 



Entirely apart from their relation to our song 

 birds, there is another vital reason for keeping 

 the cat population of this country down to the 

 minimum. The evidence against the domestic 

 cat as a carrier of disease appears to be increased 

 by every investigation of this subject by com- 

 petent people. Any lengthy discussion of the 

 matter would be quite out of place in a bird 

 book, but the writer feels it his duty to say just 

 enough to make intelligent owners of cats wish 

 to know a little more concerning the cat as a 

 factor in sanitary science. The fact that cats 

 carry and transmit bubonic plague is well estab- 

 lished. There is also positive proof that cats are 

 subject to tuberculosis and diphtheria; that they 

 are very susceptible to scabies and may transmit 

 this disease to dogs, cows, horses, and men ; that 

 they are subject to pulmonary distomatosis, 

 which is characterized by coughing and hemor- 

 rhage of the lungs, and that they afe frequently 

 infected with ringworm, blood flukes, and other 

 unpleasant and dangerous diseases. The writer 

 is inclined to believe that the fondling of cats by 

 children may be the source of many of the seem- 

 ingly mysterious cases of illness where the little 

 patients "have not been exposed" to the diseases 

 from which they suffer. 



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