TENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF STATE ENTOMOLOGIST 61 



Bitter Root Valley, along the eastern slopes of the Bitter Root 

 Mountains. It is caused by the wood-tick. These ticks attach 

 themselves to live stock as well as to rodents, such as gophers, 

 squirrels and rabbits. If infected, tliey transmit the disease to 

 human beings through their bite. 



"Tick fever is an overwhelmingly severe disease and has many 

 points in common with typhoid and typhus fevers. It has been 

 studied for o\ er a decade by skilled observers, especially in the 

 National Health Corps. 



"Dr. McClintic was put in charge of the work in the Bitter Root 

 Valley and succeeded in almost wholly eradicating the tick in that 

 section. This tremendous task was accomplished by dipping domes- 

 tic animals and stock in an arsenic mixture, and by killing wild 

 mammals. He also did valuable work in search of a curative or 

 preventive serum. 



"In March, 1912, he was married and soon thereafter returned 

 to his station at Victor, Montana, to be in readiness for the tick 

 season. In midsummer he was taken sick with the disease which 

 claimed his life. 



"The last victim of the pestilence was the man who had con- 

 quered it and driven it from the section where it prevailed. No 

 other case of spotted fever has developed in that section this year." 



In the November "Cosmopolitan," pages 724 to 735, is a popular 

 article entitled "The Messengers of Death" by Doctor Henry Smith 

 Williams, which, among various other diseases, discusses Rocky 

 Mountain spotted fever. This section is as follows : 



"The newspaper reports of Dr. McClintic's death last summer 

 (August 13, 1912), and of the congressional bill for the relief of his 

 widow introduced by Senator Myers of Montana, gave the general 

 public its first knowledge of Rocky Mountain fever, which has 

 hitherto been prevalent chiefly in Montana, Idaho, and Nevada. 

 It should be known, however, that there seems no reason why the 

 disease should not invade any region of the country to which infected 

 ticks chance to be conveyed ; so the effort to eliminate the ticks, 

 in which Dr. McClintic lost his life, is an enterprise having first- 

 hand interest for all of us." 



In this connection the following facts are of interest. 



