29 
Equine piroplasmosis has been observed in South Africa and Germany, and perhaps 
in Venezuela. 
Canine piroplasmosis is, reported for Italy, France, and South Africa. Piana and 
Galli- Valerio (1895) noticed it in dogs which had hunted in marshy localities. 
Hutcheon (1893, p. 477) states that in South Africa it is very common in coast towns 
and districts, but comparatively rare in higher inland districts of Cape Colony; 
nevertheless, it prevailed about Herschel in 1893. 
From these data it will be observed that piroplasmatic diseases have 
a wide geographic distribution, but are not confined chie% to foothills 
of mountain rang’es; they may be found in swampy valleys. 
The question of distribution probably depends more upon the abil- 
ity of the transmitting tick to develop than upon any other one factor, 
and as ticks develop in the region of spotted fever,'’ a comparison 
of the geographic distribution of the various diseases gives us but 
meager details upon w^hich to form any judgment regarding the ques- 
tion now at issue. 
NUMBER OF CASES. 
Montana . — Gwinn (1902) estirbates the number of cases he has seen in fifteen years 
as about 200. Wilson and Chowning (1902a, p. 132; 1903a, p. 28; 1904a, p. 33) think 
that probably 200 cases of the severe type have occurred (in the Bitter Boot Valley) 
since the disease first appeared; they collate 114 cases (1903a, pp. 32-41) since 1885 
which they collected from correspondence with the physicians of the valley, but 
they give cases 11, 18, 19, 37, 40, 108, 113, and 114 as doubtful. Anderson (1903c, 
pp. 12-18) increased this compilation to 121 cases. 
Taking the cases given in the tables published by Wilson and Chown- 
ing and Anderson for the Bitter Root Valley we find the following 
distribution by years from 1885 to 1892, inclusive: 
Year. 
Cases. 
Deaths. 
Per- 
centage 
deaths. 
Year. 
Cases. 
Deaths. 
1 
Per- 
centage 
deaths. 
1885 
1 
1 
100.0 
1896 
6 
5 
100.0 
1886 . . - 
1 
1 
100.0 
1897 
6 
5 
83.3 
1887 
1898 
3 
2 
66.6 
1888 
3 
1 
33.3 
1899 
23 . 
14 
60.8 
1889 
3 
3 
100.0 
1900. 
12 , 
9 
75. 0 
1890 
1 
1 
100.0 
1901 
14 
10 
71.4 
1891 
6 
4 
66.6 
1902 
21 1 
15 
71.4 
1892 
3 
1 
33.3 
Date? 
4 
2 
50.0 
18QS 
4 
2 
50.0 
1894 
Total 
114 
80 
70.17 
1895 
3 
3 
100.0 
As these statistics are based upon notes which the local ph}"sicians 
wrote up largely from memoiw, it is perhaps an open question whether 
we should draw the conclusion that the disease has increased in fre- 
quency since 1898, as the number of inhabitants in the valle}" have 
increased, or whether we should attribute the fewer number of cases 
reported for earlier years to the fact that the earlier cases had passed 
out of the memoiy of the local ph}’sicians. 
Anderson (1903c, pp. 1, 16-19) reports but 9 cases for 1903, with 3 
deaths, but he speaks (1903a, p. 10) of 10 cases under treatment. 
