While studying plague in ground squirrels in 1911, George McCoy and Charles Chapin discovered a bacterium that caused a different disease. They named the pathogen Bacterium tularense after Tulare County, California, location of their study. In 1928, Edward Francis, a US Public Health Service bacteriologist, linked B. tularense with deer fly fever―tularemia transmitted by deer flies from infected wild rabbits to humans. In 1974, B. tularense was renamed Francisella tularensis in recognition of Dr. Francis’ many contributions to our knowledge of tularemia.

Sources: Barry, J. Notable contributions to medical research by public health scientists. Public Health Service Publication No. 752. 1960 [cited 2011 Feb 25]. http://history.nih.gov/research/downloads/Notable_Cont_Med_Research.pdf; Francis E. Sources of infection and seasonal incidence of tularemia in man. Public Health Rep. 1937;52:103–13; McCoy GW, Chapin CW. Further observations on a plague-like disease of rodents with a preliminary note on the causative agent, Bacterium tularensis. J Infect Dis. 1912;10:61–72; Sjöstedt A. Tularemia: history, epidemiology, pathogen physiology, and clinical manifestations. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2007;1105:1–29. PubMed doi:10.1196/annals.1409.009