Vermont rabbit hunters were worried on this day in 1932. They were reacting to test results just back from Washington D.C. confirming a positive case of Tularemia in a rabbit that had been killed in Claremont, N.H.

Tularemia was a bacterial disease common to rabbits and squirrels that was easily inhaled by humans skinning the animals. Tularemia was occasionally found in the west, it is named for Tulare County California, but had never been reported in Vermont or New Hampshire.

Before antibiotics, Tularemia was often fatal, beginning as flu symptoms, and then causing the major body organs to shut down.

Image courtesy www.rabbits.org.