...
Dr. G. T. McCullough published on 36 cases of RMSF in Bitterroot.
Spring 1902
SPRING: Dr Albert F. Longeway, Secretary of the Montana State Board of Health, arranged for Drs. Louis A. Wilson and William M. Chowning of the University of Minnesota to study RMSF in the Bitterrroot Valley area. They noted that the disease was limited to the west side of the river, identified the wood tick as the probable vector, and the Columbian ground squirrel as the infected animal host for the ticks. Then tentatively identified a protozoa as the infectious agent. They also reported the clinical and pathological syndromes.
Wilson, L.B.; Chowning, W.M., "Studies in Pyroplamosis hominis. ( Spotted fever or tick fever of the Rocky mountains.)." Infectious Diseases, 1, 1904, 31-57.
June 1902
JUNE: U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) Surgeon General Walter Wyman sent Dr. Julius O. Cobb to Missoula, Montana, to investigate RMSF. He joined the work of Wilson and Chowning.
J. O. Cobb. "The so-called "spotted fever" of the Rocky Mountains—A new disease in Bitter Root Valley." Public Health Reports (1896-1970), Vol. 17, No. 33 (August 15, 1902), pp. 1868-1870. Download PDF (497 kB)
...
Dr. Charles W. Stiles, Chief, Division of Zoology of the Hygienic Laboratory, was sent to the Bitterroot valley. He published a detailed report in 1905 that he could not find a protozoa in RMSF patients’ blood as described by Wilson and Chowning. Because he could find no protozoa, Stiles was skeptical of the tick as a vector.
...
1905
MAY: Dr. Lucien P. McCalla and H. A. Brereton, of Boise, Idaho, transmitted RMSF to two volunteers by tick bite with a tick removed from a patient with the disease. This was the milder version of the disease and both volunteers survived. Their work was not published until 1908.
L.P. McCalla, H.A. Brereton. “Direct Transmission from Man to Man of the Rocky Mountain Spotted (Tick) Fever,” Medical Sentinel, 16, 1908, 87-88.
...
Dr. Simeon B. Wolbach, Harvard University, who began investigations in 1916, published confirmation of Ricketts’ observations on the cause of RMSF—bacteria carried by ticks—and established the bacterium as one of a new genus designated “Rickettsiae” by Dr. Rocha Lima in 1916. Wolbach named the RMSF bacterium Rickettsia rickettsii.
S.B. Wolbach. "Studies on Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever." Journal of Medical Research, 41 (1919), 1-197.
...
1921
APRIL: Canyon Creek and Hamilton, Montana, voted to consolidate their schools in Hamilton, leaving the Canyon Creek schoolhouse empty.
...
After the death of a prominent Montana State legislator and his wife from RMSF, the U.S. Congress mandated that the PHS to return to its research on the disease. Dr. Thomas Parran was sent to Montana to discuss how the PHS and the State of Montana could cooperate. Parker was employed by PHS to continue his RMSF studies and Dr. Roscoe R. Spencer was sent by the PHS to work with him.
...
George Cowan was made Deputy Chief of Tick Control work at the laboratory.
August 1921
AUGUST: The announcement was made that the RMSF laboratory would be moving to the Canyon Creek schoolhouse.
September 1921
SEPTEMBER: The laboratory moved into the old Canyon Creek schoolhouse to focus its research on RMSF. The laboratory was identified as a PHS organization under Spencer, although Parker handled the day-to-day affairs and research when Spencer was in Washington, D.C. at the Hygienic Laboratory conducting RMSF experiments there.
...
1922
JUNE 30: William Gittinger, laboratory assistant, died of RMSF at age 22.
...
Wolbach published on cultivation of RMSF and typhus rickettsia in tissue cultures. These were explants of infected guinea pig tissues.
...
In the Hygienic Laboratory in Washington, D.C., Spencer developed an experimental vaccine using phenol and conducted animal efficacy studies in guinea pigs.
...
MAY 24, 1924
...
Spencer : Spencer inoculated himself in Washington, D.C. with the experimental vaccine that had protected the guinea pigs. He felt no ill effects.
...
SUMMER 1924
...
Back : Back in Hamilton, Montana, Spencer worked with Parker to further perfect the vaccine. Spencer showed that his post vaccination serum could protect guinea pigs while his pre-vaccination could not. Parker and Cooley took the vaccine.
...
OCTOBER 29,
...
George 1924: George H. Cowan, deputy chief of tick control work, died of RMSF.
...
NOVEMBER 28, 1924
...
Spencer’s : Spencer’s and Parker’s first report on the RMSF vaccine is published in Public Health Reports.
R. R. Spencer and R. R. Parker. "Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever: Experimental Studies on Tick Virus." Public Health Reports (1896-1970), Vol. 39, No. 48 (Nov. 28, 1924), 302. Download the PDF. (1.27 MB)
...
1925
They FEBRUARY: Spencer and Parker conducted efficacy and safety tests of the vaccine on monkeys.
R.R. Spencer and R.R. Parker. "Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever: Vaccinations in Monkeys and Man." Public Health Reports, 40 (41), (October 9, 1925), 2159-2208. Download the PDF. (5.5 MB)
1925
Two quarts of vaccine, at estimated cost of $20 per dose, were produced in the Canyon Creek schoolhouse laboratory. Then followed the immunization of 34 people, mostly lab workers.
April 1925
A APRIL 1925: A cattle-dipper for the Montana State Board of Entomology came down with RMSF a few days after being vaccinated, but he recovered. Four other people in the Bitterroot Valley who also got RMSF at the same time, but had not been vaccinated yet, all died. From this unplanned experience, Spencer and Parker learned the time required to gain immunity after vaccination: 10 days.
...
Arthur LeRoy Kerlee and Spencer investigated the Weil-Felix reaction as a possible diagnostic test for RMSF.
A. L. Kerlee and R. R. Spencer. "Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever: A Preliminary Report on the Weil-Felix Reaction." Public Health Reports (1896-1970), Vol. 44, No. 4 (Jan. 25, 1929), 179-182. Download the PDF. (399 kB)
...
FEBRUARY 14, 1928
...
Arthur : Arthur L. Kerlee died of RMSF. He had not received the full vaccine course.
...
MAY 1928
...
Building : Building One of the “Montana Research Laboratory” was completed and the PHS leased the building from the State of Montana. The laboratory produced 34,000 doses of vaccine. Spencer was recalled to the Hygienic Laboratory in Washington, D.C., and Parker became the laboratory’s director.
...
The federal government paid the State of Montana $68,757 so that the Building One Laboratory became an NIH field station on February 3, 1932 and was renamed the Rocky Mountain Research Laboratory (RML). An additional building for vaccine manufacture was begun.
...
1935
MARCH: Lloyd C. Douglas published his book “Green Light” with a highly fictionalized and inaccurate version of RMSF research wrapped in a love story with religious overtones.
...
Drs. Ida Bengston and Rolla Dyer of the NIH published a report on the cultivation of RMSF rickettsia in developing chick embryo. This followed earlier reports by Dr. Ernest Goodpasture and others on use of the technique for the growth of viruses.
I.A. Bengtson, R.E. Dyer. "Cultivation of the Virus of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever in the Developing Chick Embryo." Public Health Reports (1896-1970), Vol. 50, No. 43 (Oct. 25, 1935), pp. 1489-1498
...
Dr. Herald R. Cox joined RML to find a simple method to produce vaccines and perfected the method of using chicken embryos (eggs), publishing on this in 1938. One bacteriologist and two technicians could now prepare 40 to 50 liters of vaccine a week. The technique was also useful in producing other vaccines and is still used for some vaccines. After Cox’s innovation, the cost per dose of RMSF vaccine went from $20 to $1.
...
1937
MARCH 28: The Washington Star published “Tick is Conquered,” Lucy Salamanca, describing in some detail the work on RMSF and Spencer and Parker’s development of the vaccine.
L. Salamanca. "Tick is Conquered: Scientific G-Men Perfect Vaccine Against Rocky Mountain Scourge After Six Experimenters Lose Lives." Washington, D.C. Sunday Star, March 28, 1937. Download the transcript. (75 kB)1937
RML became part of the Division of Infectious Diseases, NIH.
...
Overview
Content Tools
ThemeBuilder