Evening star., 1936-11-07
STARS, MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Progress in Field.
Laboratory and Study.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

Plague-the devastating black death
of the middle ages-still is lurking in
the United States and may be on its way
eastward.
For several years it has been known
that the plague virus was present among
the ground squirrels east Of the Sierra
Nevadas in California. In 1884 an
epizootic was found among these animals
around Bakersfield. Calf. showing that
it had moved westward to the foothills.
That same year biologists Of the Forest
Service found traces of it in the north
eastern corner of the State, and a sheep
herder near Longview, Oreg- died Of the
disease. Last year evidence of it was
found in ground squirrels as far east as
Montana.
This year according to a report just
made to the Public Health Service,
plague-infected fleas have been found in
San Bernadino County, Calf. and there
has been one human case which showed
plague reactions but which was quite
mild.
The plague in question is known as
"sylvatic plague" but differs from the
dreaded bubonic plague, which nearly de-
populated some countries of northern
Europe during the thirteenth century,
only in the fact that it Is harbored by
ground squirrels and other forest rodents
rather than by house rats. 1t is spread
from these animals to humans by fleaS,
and, so far as is known, by no other
means.
A human being naturally is not likely
to be bitten by fiea which has acquired
the virus from a ground squirrel than
by one which has fed upon the blood Of
q house rat. The former animals seldom
come near human habitations and are
quite sparse even in their natural habitat,
so that one is not very likely to get 1t
from another. The danger of q human
epidemic of Sylvatic plague Is considered
quite remote. but Public Health Service
officials would feel safer II it could be
eliminated entirely from the country.
One difference between sylvatic plague
and bubonic plague Is that the latter
tends to kill itself of after an outburst.
1t is so virulent that it kills all the rats
and all the people who are not immune
to it. Cases are practically unheard OF
between epidemics. Sylvatic plague, on
the contrary. fingers on from generation
to generation. There is always the pos
sibility, however remote, that it will
spread to the house rats and thence to
man.
One of the most notable developments
recently announced for keeping track of
the plague is method of DIR. c. r.
Eskey, In charge Of the Public Health
Service plague laboratory in San Fran
cisco, in which heas from the bodies of
ground squirrels are ground up and in
jected into guinea pigs. The animals
very quickly develop plaguelike symp-
toms.
*K
The great spirit" was lady.
Such. at least, is the concept Of the
supreme being which still persists among
the Shawnee Indians Of Oklahoma, ac-
cor1iue to- the< Study yof G. r. Voegelin.
xNis5Elf han Just Sbeen tsdsaedsby the Yale
Unly9rsity departnients of aIftlayopolQGy.
ES HiisA Ae1tv . PAapoothlr re, Our 3fano.
noha ~ q n ~ tl snost eonstdsr..
SbiA ts1a4 ~ Ihewnte paatbspnsof
spisits, e. 1ths 10 sthesgzn4 mani
tous d 6kA Algonquin trfbes 4 she a. 4
gigantic antksopo orphfe ngufe go big
that she can pick up adult. nieh and hide
them in cracks in the lodgepoie pE her
house. She dwells above the clokads, has
q private language Of her own which Is
understood by babies, and uses the full
moon as mirror. The 'man-in-the-
moon" to the Shawnee Is Our Grand
mother bending over at per cooking, for