MAMMALS AS DISEASE CARRIERS 99 



chipmunks, gophers, muskrats, opossums, cats, porcupines, mice, wood 

 rats and coyotes have been found definitely susceptible to the disease 

 in a fatal form, and it probably affects many other mammals, as well as 

 birds, notably the grouse. 13 There seems to be no danger from eating 

 the flesh of even the diseased rabbits if it be thoroughly cooked. 



A mimeographed circular from the United States Biological Survey, 

 dated January, 1928, says, among other things: 



Discovery of tularemia has cleared up many puzzling cases of illness that in 

 the past have doubtless been wrongly diagnosed as "flu," septic infection, 

 blood poisoning or other kindred diseases, because of a superficial resemblance 

 of the symptoms at some stage of the disease. Human cases have been traced 

 to rabbits or other animals in the locality or to shipments of diseased animals 

 sold in the public markets. This specific knowledge lays the foundation for 

 intelligent action in maintaining safeguards and in protecting the public in the 

 use of important game animals. 



The United States Public Health Service has been especially active 

 in the investigation of tularemia and has published many important 

 papers on the subject. 14 Many other papers not cited herein may be 

 found scattered through the periodical literature of recent date. 



Various other diseases are known to be disseminated by certain spe- 

 cies of wild mammals. A notable example is the terrible bubonic plague, 

 or "black death," which has ravaged various parts of the world at 

 intervals from a remote date down to the present generation. The 

 disease is transmitted by the bites of fleas that infest certain species of 

 rodents, chief of which is the widely distributed brown house rat, 

 though ground squirrels 15 and other rodents also are definitely known 



"Mease, Tularemia from opossums, Journ. Amer. Med. Assn., xcn, 1042, 1929. 

 Schwartz, Tularemia from a muskrat, ibid., pp. 1180-1181, 1929. Murray, The possi- 

 bility of tularemia in the ruffed grouse, The Auk, XLVI, iio-m, 1929, citing Green 

 and Wade, Tularemia in birds, Journ. Amer. Med. Assn., May 26, 1928, and Proc. 

 Soc. Exper. Biol. and Med., April, 1928. Green, The problem of tularemia in game 

 birds, American Game, xvn, 80, 1928. 



14 Dieter, A case of tularaemia in a laboratory worker, Public Health Report, 

 July 2, 1926, pp. I355-I357- Perry, Tularaemia among meadow mice (Microtus 

 californicus aestuarinus) in California, ibid., Feb. 3, 1928, pp. 260-263. Parker and 

 Francis, The susceptibility of the coyote (Canis lestes) to tularaema, ibid., July 9, 

 1926, pp. 1407-1410. Parker and Spencer, Hereditary transmission of tularaemia in- 

 fection by the wood tick, Dermacenter andersoni Stiles, ibid., July 9, 1926, pp. 1403- 

 1407 ; Six additional cases of laboratory infection of tularaemia in man, ibid., July 

 2, 1926, pp. 1341-1355. Francis and Evans, Agglutination, cross-agglutination and 

 agglutinin absorption in tularaemia, ibid., June 25, 1926, pp. 1273-1295. Freese, Lake 

 and Francis, Four cases of tularaemia (three fatal) with conjunctivitis, ibid., Feb. 26, 

 1926, pp. 367-372. Anonymous, Seasonal incidence of tularaemia and sources of in- 

 fection, ibid., Dec. 2, 1927, pp. 2948-2951. Francis, Mayne and Lake, Tularaemia 

 Francis 1921, a new disease of man, eight papers, Hygienic Laboratory, U. S. Pub. 

 Health Serv. Bull. No. 130, 1922. 



^Merriam, The California ground squirrels, U. S. Biol. Surv. Circular No. 76, 

 p. 6, 1910. 



