nt a little more
closely than in other places, that is, more constantly. In the fall of
1908, after I had made over thirty excursions around Rhode Island, I was
unable to find a single trace of this disease, and no one else was able
to find a single case of the disease in Rhode Island. In May, 1909, I
happened to be about five miles west of the city of Providence, and I
found two or three cases, all in one rather restricted spot. Later, it
was discovered a little farther south, and soon, a little to the north,
so that at the end of the season of 1909 we knew of about ten cases in
Rhode Island. At the end of 1910, a season in which very few trips were
made with the special object of surveying for the disease, we had more
than doubled the number of infections found. That led to putting someone
into the field in 1910 to make a survey of Rhode Island. A man was also
put into the state of Massachusetts for the same purpose. Mr. Rankin, in
cooperation with the United States Department of Agriculture, made a
survey of New York State, which has resulted in this map. A man was put
into Pennsylvania and one into Maryland for the same purpose. As a
result of the survey in Rhode Island, where at the end of 1910 we knew
of less than fifty cases at the outside, we now know of very nearly 4000
cases. It has been much the same story in Massachusetts. At the
beginning of this year, there were four towns in which the disease was
known; now there are seventy-one. At present in Connecticut, the disease
is known in one hundred thirty-two towns of the one hundred sixty-eight
in the state, and the southwestern part of Connecticut is very badly
infected, just as badly as the adjoining portions of New York.[A]

[Footnote A: Since this statement was made the disease has been
definitely reported in approximately 164 towns in Conn. [J. F. C]]

So much for illustrations of the rapidity with which the disease
develops. I am not going to say at this time anything special about the
origin of the disease, simply because we haven't yet decided what was
the probable origin. I will merely say there are some different theories
in regard to the origin. One is that it was imported from the Orient,
another, that it is a saprophyte, a fungus which has lived normally upon
dead organic matter, but which has taken on the parasitic form, which
develops on living organisms.

In connection with any disease of this sort, one naturally inquires, how
are we going to