Volume 1

Reports of the Commission appointed by the Admiralty, the War Office, and the civil government of Malta, for the Investigation of Mediterranean Fever / under the supervision of an advisory committee of the Royal Society.

  • Commission for the Investigation of Mediterranean Fever.
Date:
1905-07
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Reports of the Commission appointed by the Admiralty, the War Office, and the civil government of Malta, for the Investigation of Mediterranean Fever / under the supervision of an advisory committee of the Royal Society. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    131/142 (page 129)
    states that flow of milk has never entirely ceased—small quantities can still be squeezed from the gland, A sample of a couple of cubic centimetres collected in the sterile breast pump by the aid of a combination of suction and expression on three several occasions. The milk, which appeared normal in colour and consistence, gave a positive reaction in dilution of 1 in 200. Plate cultivations to the number of three were prepared, each with 0-5 c.c. of the milk at each examination. At the first and third M. nielitensis could not be detected in the resulting growth, but at the second examination saprophytes were practically absent, and colonies of M. melitensis to the average number of 25 were present in each of the three plates, i.e., average 50 per cubic centimetre. (c) Urine.—The two cases of Ambulatory Malta Fever in workmen in E.N. Dockyard handed over by Staff-Surgeon Shaw, KN., when he left Malta,* were kept under observation during the summer. No. 3414, F. Mallia, was treated from 24.4.06 to 1.6.06 with peroxide of succinic acid in the form of a 1 in 10,000 solution, 5 ounces of the solution being administered morning and evening, and by June 15 the M. meliienm had disappeared from the urine. No. 1857, B. Worley, who served as a control to the previous case whilst peroxide was being administered, continued to pass urine con- taining large numbers of M. melitensis until October, when the examination of his urine was discontinued, although he, too, had been put on the peroxide in similar doses for a fortnight from 18.8.06 to 31.8.06. (d) Fa'ccs.—Only one or tAvo observations were made with a view to the detection of M. melitensis in the fnaces. The results so far as concerned firm, formed motions, were negative, but in one fatal case (Private R.) of one and a-half months' duration, where the intestines were filled with light semi-fluid fceces, the presence of M. melitensis in considerable numbers was demonstrated after plating on ox serum nutrose agar, f (e) Post-maiiein Examinations.—But two fatal cases of Malta Fever occurred during the first eight months of 1906 in the E.M. Hospital, Valletta, upon which jjost-mmiem examinations Avere held. The details of these are here tabulated. Several post mmiems (which were witnessed by the courtesy of the staff of the Civil Hospital) were conducted on fatal cases of Malta Fever, but in these systematic bacteriological investigations were not carried out. * See these Eeports, IV, p. 12 and V, p. 40. t Eyre, J. W. H., The Preparation of Nutrose Agar, 'Trans. Path. Soc.,' Tol. 55, 190-i, pp. 91- 105. (13984) ]c