PiirPARATORV TO Ri:si Alu 11 Cakijir 63 



many years of study ot malarial fever and its cause came to a 

 focus. Laveran"s discovery in 1880 of protozoan parasites in 

 malarial fever of man stimulated new research which extended 

 over many years. Ettore Marchiafava, Italy's leading pathologist,*''^ 

 and Angelo Celli, among other eminent scientists of the same 

 nationality, studied malaria, and Smith said of them: "'- 



In 1884 Marchiafava and Cclli saw the meningicoccus of meningitis 

 and correctly described its location, but [Anton] Weichselbaiim was the 

 first to isolate it in pure culture (1887). i-"*^ Marchiafava and Celli subse- 

 quently ditferentiated the parasite of tertian malaria, and Celli wrote 

 njuch on the occurrence and prevention of malaria in Italy. ^^* 



Another important discovery originating from studies of dis- 

 eases ocairring around the Mediterranean Sea and elsewhere was 

 that of the micrococcus of " Malta fever," so-called because of its 

 prevalence on the island of Malta. " Malta fever " is now known 

 as " undulant fever," and is caused by microbes now known as 

 brucella, a derivation from the name of the discoverer, Dr. David 

 Bruce, a young English medical officer, who found the causal 

 organism in the spleen of patients."^ Unpasteurized milk and 

 other foods from cows, pigs, and goats are now known to be 

 agencies which transmit the microbic cause of this disease to man. 

 Bruce's discovery followed by several years the period in Erwin 

 Smith's life of which the year 1884 was a climax. 



Until the year 1883 Smith had been a text-book student of 

 botany at night, a botanical explorer and systematist on Sundays 

 and holidays, but every day of every week during working hours 



history of medicine, op. cit., 582 and 857. Also C. C. Mettler, History of medicine, 

 op. cit., 645, and authorities cited. 



"' F. H. Garrison, Introduction to the history of medicine, op. cit., 144. 



'^- Fifty years of pathology, op. -cit., 19. See also, F. H. Garrison, Intro, to the 

 hist, of med., op. cit., 144, for the names of other Italian scientists who studied 



malaria 



13.3 



F. H. Garrison, Introduction to the history of medicine, op. cit., 582, gives 

 the year 1887 as when Weichselbaum proved the cause of cerebrospinal meningitis. 



'^* Garrison, idem, 583, writings of Laveran's discovery of the Plasmodium of 

 malarial fever, adds: "These hemocytozoa were accurately described by Ettore 

 Marchiafava and Angelo Celli (1885). ... In 1889, Marchiafava and Celli 

 showed that the organisms of the pernicious and the tertian and quartan forms 

 are different. " Other important malarial research results are also defined. 



"" Fifty years of pathology, op. cit., 25. Smith and Garrison agree that the 

 year of this discovery was 1887. See, F. H. Garn.son, Introd. to the hist, of med., 

 op. cit., 582. See, also, Justina Hill, Germs and the man, op. cit., 78. 



