Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-12-03
SCIENCE PUZZLED
BY NEW DISEASE
Epidemic MaIady in West Is
of Unknown Origin and
PotentiaIities.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

A mysterious human epidemic disease,
of unknown origin and potentialities,
has appeared in the United States.
This malady-characteri by nausea,
vomiting, headache, abdominal pains
and mild dysentery-appears to be con-
centrated in the mountain States of the
Northwest the same area where the
dreaded Rocky Mountain spotted fever
arose, according to reports to the United
States Public Health Service. There are
indications, however, that it may have
O much wider distribution.
Efforts at differential diagnosis made
by Surgeon r. r. Spencer OF the Pub
lie Health Service show that 1t does not
fit exactly into any pathological pic
ture in the medical text books. The
symptoms resemble roughly those Of food
infection, such as formerly were grouped
under the general classification Of pto-
maine poisoning. But evidence secured
this Summer leaves little doubt that
the disease Is transmitted from person
to person and is truly epidemic, Dr..
Spencer says. Blood tests indicate the
possible persence in the body of micro
organism similar to that of the highly
fatal bacillary dysentery. possibly the
same one in a much less harmful phase.
But the mildness and short duration Of
the attack, the fact that no fatalities
have been reported, and the absence
of fever tend to rule out diagnosis of a
mild form of this disease. So far as
known the new disease never has APP
peared in the large cities of the East
Attracted Little Attention.
The disease, DR.. Spencer reported.
apparently has had sporadic outbreaks
in the Rocky Mountain States for years,
but has attracted little attention be-
employees in Yellowstone Park. 1t was
attracting considerable attention in the
Summer of 1929, when there was an
epidemic among the tourists and hotel
employees in Yellowstone Park. 1t was
attributed to infected food, but the
hotel management was unable to fix
the blame on any specific items in the
menus. About half the employees
throughout the park had the disease
regardless of the source of their food
and water. 1t also was found that
many automobile tourists had been
taken sick the first day they entered
the park, before either food or water
had been taken from park sources.
The Yellowstone hotels, to remove
any suspicion from their kitchens, APP
pealed to the Public Health Service, and
DR.. Spencer, whose work on Rocky
Mountain fever has attracted national
attention, spent much of the past Sum-
mer investigating. He found that old
residents of the region attributed 1t tc
inhaling pine pollen, which about the
middle Of July is so thick in the air
that large clouds Of it sometimes are
taken for the smoke from a forest fire
and which, settling down on acres of
the surface of Yellowstone Lake, seems
like layer of sulphur on the water.
But he found the epidemic and the
height OF the pollen season did not CO.
tncide, and volunteers who breathed
considerable amounts of the pollen did
not become sick.
He next tried to diagnose the malady
by comparing it with several somewhat
similar outbreaks reported in medical
literature. A somewhat similar out
break had been reported several years
before in widely separated hotels in
New York and New Jersey and finally
traced to the common use OF a silver
polish containing sodium cyanide. But
the Yellowstone hotels were not using
manufactured silver polish of any kind.
Other vaguely similar cases were found
in the records Of the Navy, which had
been traced to specific organism in the
food, but the duration and severity OF
the malady were different and there
were few deaths.
Victims Ill Two Days.
The mysterious disease never affects
the patient more than two days at the
most and usually the illness is only for
a few hours. The patient is weak and
sometimes has a slightly greenish pallor.
There is a temporary increase in the
white corpuscles in the blood with no
decrease in the red corpuscles, a condi-
ton similar to that which appears in
bacillary dysentery. Everything points
to a nicro-organism Of some kind,
which can pass from person to person
without tte Medium of a common food.
Inquire by DIR. Spencer among the
larger towns of Montana revealed that
they had experienced outbreaks, but,
since nobody died or was even confined