Diseased Rabbits

Bacterium tularense was first discovered and named by Dr. George W. McCoy of the U. S. Public Health Service in 1912, after he had isolated it from ground squirrels in Tulare County, Calif. In 1920, Dr. Edward Francis of the Public Health Service discovered that jack rabbits in the states around Great Salt Lake were infected with this disease, and that the human disease known as deer-fly fever was transmitted to man by the bite of a blood-sucking fly, which had been infected previously by biting the diseased jack rabbit.

Now Dr. J. R. Verbrycke, Jr., of Washington, D. C., has reported a death following infection with this bacteria. The patient was a widow, aged 67, whose infection had occurred from some market rabbits brought home by her son five days before her illness. These she had prepared for cooking. This is the first case reported in which the disease was contracted by the handling of infected rabbits for cooking. The other forms of infection thus far reported have been by the bite of a blood-sucking fly and by accidental infection in the laboratory.