Evening star., 1935-03-10
By Randolph Roberts.

those faced by these unheroic heroes
Of the test tube, who willingly and
knowingly expose themselves to dan
gerous infections in the hope of un-
earthing knowledge that may be Of
use to society.
The glory in such lone laboratory
adventure Is not great and the fame
therefrom will not be a match to the
renown that comes to the Nations
champion hog callers or polar explor-
ers. But for plain unvarnished hero
ism that wages a solitary battle, with
few thrills and little hope of reward,
where can be found its equal?
Just the other day, DR.. Charles
Armstrong, an outstanding "microbe
hunter" was reported recovering from
the ravages of a new and Unidentified
virus. contracted while he was study
ing it in his laboratory. The virus
was isolated from a case of sleeping
sickness that occurred in st. Louis.
This is the. third mysterious malady
that DR.. Armstrong has had. Back in
1923 he was stricken with dengue
fever, an ailment something like in
huenza. Passed on to men by mos
quitoes, no preventive has yet been
found for it. Dengue also is known
as "bonebreak fever" for when you
have it you feel as if your bones in
deed would break. Usually the pa
tlent is severely i'll for only three or
four days. While the mortality is
low, the ailment is very annoying.
Then, in 1880, DR.. Armstrong, dur
ing the Nationwide outbreak of par
rot fever, contracted the dread mall
ady. But more about that later.
DR. ARMSTRONG; latest illness is
~ the ninety-fifth recovery" from
infections contracted in regular
line of duty in the Public Health
Service personnel. There have been
l6 fatalities. Two other health heroes
have likewise had three serious all
ments apiece: DR.. George Mccoy
contracted two of them. typhoid and
dengue, in a single year, 1907, and
came down with rabbit fever in 1910;
whereas DR.. Edward Francis got
dengue in 1918, rabbit fever in 1919
and parrot fever in 1880.
Most life-snufing of all the mys-
terious maladies contracted in active
service by the microbe hunters is
Rocky Mountain spotted fever, with
4 fatalities and IL recoverieS. Next
is typhus, with two deaths and five re-
coveries. While rabbit fever has
caused but one death to Federal lab
oratory workers, it nevertheless num-
bers more recoveries-23 all told.
Eleven health officers came down with
parrot fever, with one death. TWO
other scientists, Drs. G. c. Lake and
Alice Evans, are listed as still much
disabled after several years in the
war against Malta fever.
For days at time the daring
health heroes work with slides of the
worlds most dangerous typhus-Ike
diseases, of which spotted fever is one.
These strains are from all over the
world and include maladies that are
caused by such insects as ticks, lice,
feas, mites and kindred parasites.
Back in 1909 the Federal soldiers
of science brought their laboratory
WedpOLlo lIltO llIC WCoOSAA "AANSA AASo"
to conquer spotted fever.
The 25-year-old battle against this
puzzling ailment is a heroic epic in
Health Service records. At the start,
in certain sections, about IS per cent
of the fever's victims perished. Four
of the rs research workers engaged
in this warfare died up to 1880. Valiant
efforts and countless CANDLES with
death brought success in the knowl-
edge that spotted fever was prevent
able.
Outstanding hero among these med
ical martyrs is DR.. r. r. Spencer.
Nobody knew anything about the dis
ease until he entered the picture. He
Jabbed scores of fever germs into his
arm to learn whether he had dis
covered the germ. He had.
This was after months of constant
exposure to death from tick bites in
the remote Bitterroot Valley of West
ern Montana. Ranchers and hunters
were dying wholesale in 1912 when
the young doctor. then only "a, was
sent out to the valley. They suddenly
turned black. Residents of the Rocky
Mountain States were panic-stricken.
Doctors and bacteriologists who
studied the malady also perished,
among them Dr. Thomas B. McClintic
of the Health Service.
DID all this frighten Spencer? He
~ moved to the valley with his
xr,ifa III;
up a laboratory in an abandoned
school house. Valley people told him
what little they knew. You died only
when wood tick bit you Spencer
knew one thing-that all these ticks
couldn't possibly be eradicated. But
bushels of ticks were brought into the
laboratory Stewed and mashed, they
were injected into guinea pigs. The
pigs stayed we'll.
The fearless young scientist pulled
tlcks OH a mountain goat, though his
heipers explained no mountain goats
ever had the fever But those ticks
which had been filled with goat blood
were mashed up and injected. This
time the guinea pigs died.
Spencer soon found that a tick
was equally potent if full of guinea
pigs blood. He had been expert
menting with dry ticks.
At about this time William Get
finger, laboratory assistant, became
sick and delirious. Soon he died of
spotted fever. Spencer and R. r.
Parker, an entomologist, went back
to face death. They knew now how
great was their danger. But they bred
more thousands of ticks and took out
heavy life insurance. Were they
frightened? Plenty. Often they
found ticks on the other fellows
clothes.
But all that Winter and through
that Spring and Summer they re-
mained there. wallowing in death.
Happily they now found a clue-that
the few people who recovered from
the dread ailment were thereafter i'm
mune and the scientists proved that
any infected tick if filled with any
kind of blood became deadly. They
nourished and bred hundreds of thou
sands of ticks. Now Spencer brought
q couple of thousands of the death
bugs tn Washington in the Fall of