GOATS' MILK AND MALTA FEVER 35 



in a dried form with dust in the air. This also proved 

 to be an incorrect supposition. 



Next a very important discovery was made. The 

 germ was found in the blood and the excretions of 10 

 per cent, of the goats which are kept in Malta as the sole 

 source of milk, and are driven through the streets to 

 supply customers, whilst 50 per cent, of the goats were 

 found to have been infected at some time. Then the 

 germ was found in the milk itself, and it only remained 

 to prove by experiment that it was from the goats 1 milk 

 that human beings acquire the infection. A monkey 

 fed with the milk of an infected goat acquired the 

 fever. 



The next step was to stop the consumption of goats' 

 milk by the soldiers and sailors in the hospital and 

 barrack. Actually we were carefully feeding our invalid 

 soldiers and sailors in the great hospital at Valetta with 

 a highly poisonous infected fluid the milk of the 

 Maltese goat ! The preventive measure the stoppage 

 of goats'* milk only came into operation in July, 1906. 

 In the first six months of that year there were thirty- 

 one cases of Malta fever in every thousand of the 

 garrison (numbering about 8,000 men). In the 

 preceding six months there had been forty-seven cases 

 per thousand. Now when the goats' milk was stopped 

 after July, 1906, what was the result ? From July to 

 December, 1906, there were only ten cases per thousand 

 of the garrison. In actual numbers there were in July, 

 August, and September in 1905 as many as 258 cases, 

 whilst in the same months in 1906, after removal of 

 goats 1 milk from the dietary of the troops, there were 

 only twenty-six cases, and these were probably due to the 

 independent purchase of goats' milk by soldiers outside 

 the barracks. In the naval hospital until 1906 almost 

 every patient who remained in the hospital a few weeks 

 toolc the disease. Since the exclusion of goats' milk 

 not a single case has occurred. 



D 2 



