MAMMALS AS DISEASE CARRIERS 97 



diseases which may be transmitted in that way, or to quarantine them 

 if they have been exposed. 



Cats "have been accused or suspected of transmitting more than a 

 score of infections to man or domestic animals. The diseases named 

 range from scarlet fever, smallpox and bubonic plaque to whooping 

 cough, mumps and foot-and-mouth disease. Science has already ac- 

 quitted the cat in some cases, and future investigation may either con- 

 firm or deny other allegations. There are some infections, however, re- 

 garding which the evidence seems conclusive." 3 It is one of the chief 

 carriers of ringworm, transmits various internal and external parasites, 

 and often transmits various infections by its teeth and claws, including 

 at least one case of the dreaded tetanus (Forbush). Dogs and cats have 

 both been recognized as carriers of creeping eruptions. 4 Tapeworms 

 are disseminated by wild Carnivora, and probably by domesticated 

 species. 6 



Rabies, more popularly known as hydrophobia, though usually 

 thought of as a disease of dogs, also affects wolves, foxes 6 and other 

 members of the dog family, domestic cats, mountain lions and other 

 members of the cat family, 7 and is, by their bites while infected, trans- 

 mitted to cattle, sheep, horses and other domestic stock and to various 

 wild animals, as well as to human beings. It frequently becomes epi- 

 demic locally, sometimes over large areas. Because of its terrible re- 

 sults and the fact that it has become much more prevalent than formerly 

 in the western United States, 8 no effort to stamp it out should be spared. 

 As dogs have long been the principal carriers of the disease, experience 

 in Europe has shown that, where such is the case, muzzling all dogs 

 for a few years would eradicate the disease, and all homeless, owner- 



* Forbush, Is the cat a disseminator of disease?, in The domestic cat, Economic 

 Biology, Bull. No. 2, 1916, Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, pp. 82-87. 

 See also Osborne, The cat, a neglected factor in sanitary science, Pedagogical 

 Seminary, xiv, 439-459, 1907 ; The cat and the transmission of disease, Chicago 

 Medical Recorder, May, 1912. Cohen, System of physiol. therapeutics, v, 144, 340, 

 1903. Fleming, Animal plagues, their history, nature and prevention, n, 15, 16, 74-77, 

 80, 89-91., 95, 99, 1882. 



4 White and Dove, Dogs and cats concerned in the causation of creeping eruption, 

 Reprint from Official Record, U. S. Dept. Agric., v, 3, 1926. 



8 Vergeer, Dissemination of the broad tapeworm by wild Carnivora, Journ. 

 Canadian Med. Assn., xix, 692-694, 1929. 



6 Bryant, Rabies epidemic among gray foxes, California Fish and Game, x, 146- 

 147, 1924- 



7 Forbush, The domestic cat, pp. 85-86, 1916. 



8 Buckley, Rabies becoming more prevalent in the United States, Yearbook U. S. 

 Dept. Agric. for 1926, pp. 622-624. Salmon, Rabies : Its cause, frequency and treat- 

 ment, Yearbook for /poo, pp. 211-246. Hart,. Rabies and its increasing prevalence, 

 U. S. Bureau of Animal Industry Circular No. 129, 1908. 



