C2 



MONTANA EXPERIMENT STATION 



The presence of the Bureau of Entomology's field station at 

 Florence and that of the Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service 

 at Victor has had a notable effect on the number of cases in these 

 localities, causing the residents to be much more careful about 

 allowing themselves to be bitten and resulting in fewer cases. 



During the first season (1910) at Florence many residents 

 visited the station and were informed about the identity, habits and 

 transformation of the tick. Two public addresses were given in 

 Florence and in connection with the erecting of the dipping vat and 

 soliciting the cooperation of the farmers in the dipping enterprise, 

 much information was distributed. The work of Messrs. King, 

 P)irdseye, and Howell had the effect of placing the residents on their 

 guard against tick bites with the result that during the next year, 

 1911, no cases occurred in the Florence district. 



After the tick season a boy was allowed to go into a certain field 

 where he received a tick bite, later coming down with the fever, but 

 finally recovering. During the next year, 1912, only one case 

 occurred in the Florence district, that of a newcomer from the east 

 who settled in that locality and was not well informed. The reduc- 

 tion in the number of cases during 1911 and 1912 was in no sense 

 due to a reduction in the prevalence of ticks in that district. 



In the Victor district the ticks are probably somewhat reduced, 

 but they are in no sense exterminated there. 



According to the published records of the Montana State Board 

 of Health, deaths from Rocky Mountain spotted fever have occurred 

 in Ravalli and Missoula counties in 1912 as follows: 



Only the deaths are reported and since the per cent of recoveries 

 is from ten to twenty, it is probable that one or two other cases 

 occurred, or a probable total number of nine or ten. It is thus 

 apparent that there has been no real reduction in the number of cases. 



Nothing could be more injurious to the cause of eradication of 

 this disease than to allow the State to be thrown off guard by 

 believing that the disease has been already done away with. The 



