ENDEMIC TYPHUS FEVER

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Abstract
That some vectors other than the body louse may be responsible for the transmission of endemic (New World) typhus is becoming an accepted fact, through the work of a number of investigators. Maxcy1 and Shelmire and Dove2 suggested rat fleas as possible vectors, and Dyer, Rumreich and Badger3 recently published their observations on a virus of the typhus type derived from fleas collected from wild rats. In November, 1930, Shelmire and Dove, in connection with their work on the tropical rat mite as a possible vector of endemic typhus, trapped a number of wild rats in and around feed stores in Henderson, Texas, a town in which a large number of cases of endemic typhus have occurred in recent years.2 A number of fleas (Ceratophyllus fasciatus and Xenopsylla cheopis) were secured from these rats. Shelmire and Dove gave me some of these fleas for studies in