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.

    15/142 (page 13)
    for that efficient system of registration of milch goats that the Local Government will be compelled to enforce if it seriously desires to stamp- out Malta Fever from the island. Table V.—Third Examination of Certain Herds at Eabato. No. of lierd. No. of examination. jNo. or goats in herd. LNO. 01 milks reacting. No. of milks containing M. melitensis. r First 5 3 2 14 Second 3 1 0 Third 5 0 0 r First 21 6 0 18 21 0 0 Third 21 2 1 r First 4 0 0 35 Second 4 0 0 Third 4 0 0 r First 9 1 0 47 ] 11 0 0 Third 11 0 0 A further point, and one of considerable practical importance, depends upon the inconsistent results obtained at succeeding examinations, and is brought out in Table V. Taking the herds in order, at the first examination of Herd No. 14, which comprised five milch goats, the milk from three was found to give an agglutination reaction, and from two of these the micrococcus was recovered. These last two animals were removed to the Lazzaretto. At the next examination of the three remaining animals the one that had previously given a positive agglutination reaction still reacted, but the milk did not contain the- coccus. At the third examination the owner had added two more milch goats, and none of the five reacted, that is to say, the reaction had disappeared from the animal that had reacted on two previous occasions. Herd No. 18 consisted of 21 goats, including six whose milk gave a positive reaction. At the second examination none of these six reacted,, while at the third examination two of those which had previously reacted again showed the reaction, and the milk of one of them now- contained the specific coccus. Herd No. 35 consisted of four healthy milch goats, none of which showed any sign of infection at the subsequent examinations. Herd No. 47 consisted at first of nine goats, and the milk from one of them gave a positive agglutination reaction at the first examination,, but a negative reaction at the second and third examinations. Subse- (juently the owner added two healthy animals to his herd. These results show conclusively the necessity for repeated examina-