Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1908-06-05
FLEA NOW UNDER SUSPICION
To Be Arraisned by Health SERVES
for Transmitting Disease.


Hard times are in sight for the vicl.
ed flea. He has been indicted and
convicted of many high crimes In an.
es past, and has been industriouslv
hunted through history as a war.
mint" that deserved little sympathy
but it remained for modern science n
brand him as a wholesale murdere,
and sentence his whole tribe to exter.
mination. In obedience to this far
all the employees of the Public Health
Service have been ordered to capture
the bloodthirsty creature wherever
found, bind him securely, immerse him
in alcohol and ship him On to Wash.
ington, where the surgeons of the de.
partment will perform an autopsy M.
on his remains and determine lust
how much of a criminal he had been
during his happy, skipping lifetime.
This is no joke. The scientists ara
convinced that fleas transmit many
fatal diseases, among the most dead.
ly of which is the terrible bubonlc
plague. Many of the feas found on
rats are veritable wholesale convey.
ors OF pestilence. Immigrants from the
slums of European cities frequently
bring over upon their persons feas
that are perfect hotbeds of contagious
disease. The scientists of the Public
Health Service are DESTROYS of secur.
ing many specimen fieas from rats and
human beings in plague infested local.
tiles, as well as from other localities
where contagious diseases are prev.
alent. With this end in view, DR.. Wal.
ter Wyman, surgeon general Of the
service, has sent broadcast a circular
asking from the officers of the depart
ment and from health officers and ply
sicians throughout the country for
samples of all kinds of feas. After
reciting the fact that the plague has
been found to spread from place TO
place by means of rats and from rat
to rat and thence to human beings BY
means CT fieas, DR.. Wyman issues the
following:
Directions for Collecting and Forward
irg Fleas.
First-Collect all specimens in small
walls of alcohol, using no cotton with.
in the vial. Take especial care that
each vial represents but single host
species, and is accompanied by full
data-host, locality and collector.
Fleas should be collected Immediate
ly after the death of the host. Some
times, II the host animal be small,
much time may be saved by miners
ing it slowly in water, driving the heas
to one extremity, a last sudden dip
throwing them off upon the surface
of the water. from which they may be
easily gathered.
Second-Exact determination should
each time be made of the host. II any
one engaged in these investigations
is not familiar with the species and
varieties of the common rats and mice,
he should first of all collect two spec
linens in alcohol of each form of rats
and mice, number each lot, and send
one series to the director, Hygienic
laboratory, Washington, for deter
limitations, retaining the duplicate
specimens for comparison. BY this
simple Procedure all hosts may be def.
initely and accurately cited. It is not
sufficient to record the hosts simply as
rats" and mice" Packages sent By
mail should be packed to comply with
the postal regulations.
INTELLECTUALLY the most important
collections of fieas that can now be
made are Of those species actually
found upon plague or leprosy patients.
or upon lower classes of human beings
in the more sordid surroundings, es-
pecially near wharves and docks
Washington correspondence Of the
New York Tribune.