The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1918-12-15
How the Little Jungle Tick Bit Him,
Deposited Minute Microbes Which III
Scratched Into His Skin Bringing
''Relapsing Fever and How His Warrior
Recent Visits to the Hospital Have B.
By Arthur C. Jacobson, NJ. d.


A LII Americans are greatly concerned
~ about the personal fortunes OF
1 Theodore Roosevelt, statesman, ex
plorer, athlete, orator, soldier, journalist
critic, historian, etc, ETC., some because
they love him, and some-for other rea-
sons.
Now, a mans personal fortunes include
his health, or lack Of it, and in this article
we shall confine ourselves to a study Of
this highly important phase Of our sub
jeces life. Mr.. Roosevelt's recent sojourn
in the Roosevelt Hospital New York, to re-
ceive treatment for sciatica, has especially
excited our interest as to Just what ails
him and what the chances are of his re-
gaining the vigorous health for which he
was formely famous.
Mr.. RooseYelt's fraiIty and pulmonary
troubles as a youth were successfully COM
bated and lived down through the adoption
Of everything opposed to mollycoddleism,
and he became, instead Of the miIksop
that most members of his class would have
become in similar circumstances, an ex-
cepIlOnally VlgOrOuS man.
1t will not be denied that Mr.. Roosevelt
has been rather prodigal of his acquired
vigor IN the course of his interesting
career, and there is no doubt that in his
later years he has been altogether too ener-
getic for his own good. For, however much
we may be able to expend by way of
energy up to middle life, there are few
who can. after that time, continue to seek
Rivers Of Doubt without inviting or 'expe-
Siting physical retribution.
It is safe to say that when Mr.. Roose-
welt started on his South American tour Of
exploration he was in fair condition for a
man of his age who had lived such a life
as his; that is to say, he was little stale
physically, little overweight, little too
high as to blood pressure, and little be-
low standard as to heart-muscle efficiency.
The Jungle fever, to which Mr.. Roosevelt
fell a victim in Brazil, made grave inroads
upon his already reduced reserve stock Of
vitality, and he is suffering to-day from
sequels Of it, which ensued because of the
lowering of his resisting powers, as we
shall show very clearly in the course of
this article.
Just what was the jungle fever to which
Mr.. Roosevelt succumbed and which is
still, through apparently unrelated but
really associated affections, undermining
his health and strength?
The disease contracted by Mr.. Roosevelt
in Brazil is known as relapsing fever It
is an acute infectious disease, characterized
by fever of sudden onset, and, after several
days, rapid subsistence, which may relapse
at intervals Of seven days or more an in.
definite number of times. It is caused by
organisms known as spirochetes, which are
present in the blood during the fever and
are transmitted from infected to healthy
persons through the medium Of parasites
known as ticks.
Ticks are widely distributed throughout
South America. Although small, they are
visible to the Eaked eye. The female is
the blood-sucking member of the tribe
another proofsby the way, that the female
Of species is always more deadly than
the male! The females are larger than the
males, and, when gorged with blood, have
been known to reach a length of nearly
half an inch. As a rule they are tenn
porary parasites and do not live per-
on the body of their host. They
possess four pairs of legs and have three
regions of the body-head, thorax and
abdomen-fused into one mass.
After fertilizing the female, the male tick
dies, but the impregnated female seeks a
host, at whose expense she proceeds to
engorge herself with blood for the devotion
ment Of her eggs.
After becoming enormously distended
with blood, she drops of and secretes her.
self in some convenient hiding place where
she deposits her eggs, which number thou.
sands. The egglaying begins from two to
en- days after the host has been quilted,
Ind goes on for several days. The eggs
ire Matched out in two or three weeks.
The tick acts in a more or less mechani-
al way in transmitting the spirochete. It
bites a person already infected with the
disease and abstracts the spirochetes' with
he blood that is sucked out The spiro-