ABSTRACT
Undulant fever or Malta fever is a severe disease; two per cent of the British troops and sailors attacked by it died. It involved hospital treatment on an average for 120 days, and sometimes had sequela lasting two or even more years. During the illness itself the patient had long continued fever and severe joint pains, and was reduced to a state of great emaciation and weakness from which recovery was slow. In 1887 Bruce found the Mic. melitensis in the blood of patients; and this organism after isolation from the spleen-pulp of several fatal human cases was found to fulfil the postulates of Koch. In 1905 W. H. Horrocks found the Mic. melitensis in the milk of apparently healthy goats, and further investigations showed that blood serum derived from goats in the island usually gave positive agglutination results when tested against the Mic. melitensis.
