Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1941-07-11
By DR. X. X. PARKER

Director Rocky Mountain Laboratory
The Rocky Mountain laboratory.
located at Hamilton. Mont, is one
Of the largest, best equipped. most
modern and best known institu-
tons in the world. Originally es-
tablished in the fall Of 1921 for the
study of Rocky mountain spotted
fever, the scope of its activities has
gradually expanded during the last
20 years until its principal present
function Is the study of disease
problems peculiar to the Rocky
mountain regicn. II is actually the
western branch of the National
Institute of Health.
Originally there was staff OF four.
There are now 100, including Is spe-
cialLstS in baCteriology, serology, virus
diseases, entomology and paraSitology.
The first year the laboratory was
in operation the expenditure was
$4,000. This year il IS nearly S260,oOO
about half Of which is represented by
the annual payroll, while a large part
OF the balance IS expended locally for
guinea pigs and other animals, feed
for such animals and numerous other
items needed in the operation OF the
laboratory.
Research Dangerous
Needless TO say, the nature OF work
carried on at this laboratory Is not
free from the element OF danger. Some
of the diseases worked with are among
the most infectious and most deadly
ones that affect man. In spite OF all
precautions, accidental infections have
occurred. There have been some so
~ q
men have lost their lives. Some have
had not one disease, but two. The
danger exists not alone for the scien-
tific workers but for all persons en-
ployed at the laboratory. Often there
is no evidence to afford clue as TO
how infection has been acquired-per
haps from a tiny bit of tissue from
an infected tick unnoticed on the skin,
perhaps tiny drop OF infectious ma
terial has gotten into the eye, perhaps
minute droplets sprayed into the air
by the squeal of a rabbit when its
lungs are infected with tularemia have
been inhaled, perhaps there has been
the bite Of tiny larval tick chat can
scarcely be seem on an arm thrust
into a rodent burrow. These accidents
can and have happened.
The laboratory was first housed in
an abandoned district school building
west Of Hamilton. The present site of
nearly 80 acres adjoins the city of
Hamilton on the southwest and there
are now seven laboratory buildings and
two residences, the buildings and equip
ment representing an investment of
well over a million dollars. The seven
laboratory buildings include one for
administration, two for laboratories,
two for handling experimental animals,
one for mechanical shops and stock
room space, and one is a central heat
ing plant.
First Fever Studies
The first studies of spotted fever
were undertaken in 1902 by Doctors
Wilson and Chowning of the Univer-
sity OF Minnesota, at the request Of
DR.. A. F. Longeway, the first secretary
of the then newly created Montana
state board Of health. Even then spot
ted fever was known in other parts
of the Rocky mountain region, but in
none of them was it as fatal as in
the Bitter Root valley, where the case
fatality rate was usually 80 percent.
For several years following the mi
tial investigations of Wilson and
Chowning, a number Of investigators
were concerned in the study OF this
disease, the most notable of whom was
DR.. Howard Taylor Ricketts, of the
University Of Chicago, who carried on
work from 1906 to 1908. 1t was he who
first definitely proved that the Rocky
mountain wood tick, dermacentor an
dersoni, was the agent by which in
lection was transmitted to man.
Following DR.. Ricketts, studies there
was a period of about u years during
which the main efforts against this
disease were directed toward its con-
troll through measures designed to re-
duce the tick population. Until 1917 this
work was carried on by the United
States bureau Of entomology in CO.
operation with the Montana state ex-
pertinent station and thereafter by the
Montana state board of entomology.
Although the benefits resulting from
control work as carried on during this
period were greater than is generally
appreciated, nevertheless, it finally be-
came apparent that tick control meas
ures alone would never solve the Rocky
mountain spotted fever problem. Also
during this period it became apparent
that Rocky mountain spotted fever,
which heretofore had been considered
to be particularly western Montana
problem, was actually of consequential
public health and economic importance