28 
Through the kindness of Doctor Gates I am able to give data regard- 
ing 17 cases which he observed: 
There is no record of any tick bite in 5 of his cases, which occurred 1 each in 1894, 
1898, 1900, 1902, and 1904. Of these only the case of 1904 can be given much if 
any weight. 
In 10 of his cases, namely, 1 each in 1900, 1901, and 1902, 4 in 1903, and 3 in 1904, 
there was history of tick bite. 
Two of his cases (15 and 16) of 1904: are especiall}" interesting in this 
connection: 
The patients were husband and wife. On May 29, the husband (case 15), of 
Bridger, visited the Clark Fork Canyon, some 60 miles south of Bridger, remaining 
in that vicinity about four days, during which time he was bitten by ticks in five or 
six places. About seven days from the time he was first bitten, namely, June 5, he 
arrived home in Bridger, and felt the first symptoms of the disease. Upon reaching 
home there were two ticks attached to his body, and these, of their own accord or 
from friction from the clothes, became detached from the body on June 6, and then 
bit the wife (case 16). The bites occurred during the night, the ticks being removed 
and killed by the patient the following morning. Following the removal of the 
ticks, she applied carbolic acid to the bites. On the evening of June 11 she felt 
chilly, feverish, and a general malaise, and a fatal attack of spotted fever followed. 
In this connection it may be pointed out that Doctor Bradbury men- 
tions another instance where husband and wife ‘‘had spotted fever at 
the same time,” and he informs me that the wife was taken sick in the 
morning, the husband in the afternoon of the same day. Neither one 
was bitten b}" ticks, so far as could be established. 
Wilson and Chowning (1908a, p. 31) record that cases 4:5 and 4:6 were 
two children, aged 3 and 5 years, apparently brother and sister. They 
are reported as both sick in June, 1899. 
Anderson (1903c, p. 16) reports two cases (113 and 114:) where the 
patients were husband and wife. Doctor Heine has written me that 
“the wife did occup}" the same bed as her husband during the period 
mentioned,” namely, during the prodromal sj^mptoms in her husband’s 
case. 
In view of these 8 cases (or 6 cases, omitting the two children), it 
seems to me that the possibility is b}" no means excluded that, despite 
the general experience regarding the noncontagiousness of the disease, 
such close intimacy as sleeping in the same bed might perhaps result 
in a transmission of the disease to a healthy individual. At least, it 
must be admitted that such an explanation would account for case 16 
of Gates as satisfactorily as do the tick bites; and it must further be 
admitted that if the tick bites actually did give the infection the proof 
is still wanting that such method of transmission was not accidental. 
Dr. W. L. Samuels (see below, p. 28) has reported to me the case 
of a girl in 1904: in which no history of tick bite was obtained upon 
questioning the patient. 
In connection with the subject of ticks I am fortunately in a position 
