New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-11-20
CAT FUR ANTHRAX
CARRIER, IS FEAR
Skins Much Used for Cheap
Sets, Says DR.. Rogers.
Here for Tests.
STATE LABOR BOARD
TO ACT ON FINDINGS
II Germs Are Found Department
Will Interfere to Guard
Workers Health.

DR.. c. T. Graham Rogers, director OF
the Bureau OF Industrial Hygiene of
the State Labor Department, arrived in
New York yesterday to discover
whether cat fur used in making practi-
cally all cheap imitation furs is car
rier of anthrax germs. He was moved
TO this action by the death on Thurs
day of Sophie Rosen in Bellevue from
anthrax, contracted from her fur collar.
Il don't want TO be an alarmist and
destroy an industry By creating panic
among women who would otherwise
buy the cheap furs,' DR.. Rogers said,
but | have the Cat under suspicion.
We have no evidence yet that the cat
carries the anthrax germ but 1t is true
that eats 90 about stables and are in
frequent contact with cattle and horses,
which we do know have the disease,
and communicate il to human beings.
"W Women who wear expensive furs
need have no fear of getting the in
lection, because the processes of pre-
pairing furs of the costler kinds thor
oughly disinfect them. The cheap
processes to which imitation furs are
subjected do not steriize them.
"A great many, probably 90 per cent,
of the cheap furs are simply dyed and
otherwise treated cat skins-skunk,
mink, fitch and many others. A fur
rier, combining cat and dog skins, can
turn out almost any kind of skin by
name.
"We intend to ascertain whether cats
are carriers Of the disease. If this
proves to be the case, the Labor De-
partment has sufficient power over
factories TO protect the public indirect
ly. We can enforce healthful condi-
tions and processes for the workers. II
cat furs are infected, We can demand
their treatment to eliminate the infec-
ton so that the lives of the workers
will be protected, and thus secondarily
pi otect the public"
There YVES no way, Dr. Rogers said,
by which owners of cheap furs can
sterilze them without running the fur;
The anthrax germ, he said, is very hard
to kill except by high temperatures.
To subject furs TO sufficient heat to do
it would spoil them.
Cheap furs that are made by piecing
together trimmings from expensive
skins. he said, were absolutely safe, as
they had been subjected TO the ex-
pensive processes that kill the germs.
DR.. Rogers suggested. as a means by
which wearers of furs could protect
themselves, making sure there were no
abrasions or opening, in the parts of
their skin which the furs touched. But
there are hairs in cheap skins, he said,
which by continual rubbing were liable
TO cause minute punctures, through
which the deadly germs could enter the
system.
The Rosen girls collar, from which
she is supposed to have caught the
fatal disease, DR.. Rogers said, would
be subjected to tests, first TO determine
what bacteria were in it, and second to
determine whether it was cat fur. An
effort then will be made to trace it
through its manufacture to its source.
An autopsy was made yesterday on
the body Of Sophie Rosen at the direc-
ton of DR.. Haven Emerson. Commits
sioner of Health. The examination was
made by DR.. Albert 7. Weston, Cor.
oner's physician, in the presence Of