594 Malta Fever 



when agar-agar cultures suspended in water are injected 

 beneath the skin. 



The micro-organism usually seems to be absent from the 

 circulating blood, though Hughes has cultivated it from the 

 heart's blood of a dead monkey. 



Bruce not only succeeded in securing the micro-organism 

 from the cadavers of Malta fever, but has also obtained it 

 during life by splenic puncture. 



Accidental inoculation with micrococcus melitensis, as by 

 the prick of a hypodermic needle, is almost invariably fol- 

 lowed by an attack of the disease. Six cases of this kind 

 occurred in connection with bacteriologic work on Malta 

 fever at Netley and two additional at the Royal Naval 

 Hospital at Haslar and in the Philippines.* 



The natural history of the micrococcus and the sources of 

 contagion are unknown, and, as Bruce points out, would be 

 very difficult to determine because of the high temperature 

 at which its development takes place, the extreme slowness 

 of its growth, and the absence of well-marked morphologic, 

 cultural, or pathogenic characteristics by which it can be 

 recognized. 



* See Wright and Windsor, "Jour, of Hygiene," n, 1902, p. 413. 



