CHAPTER XVII 



IMALTA FEVEll 



Malta Fever. — A bacterial parasitic disease com- 

 municated to man cliiefly by the milk of goats suffering 

 from this bacterial disease. The germ is a minute 

 micrococcus. • 



Tliis disease is an excellent example of the principle 

 underlying every previous chapter, and that is the 

 danger of the domestic animal as a source of disease. 

 "We have shown that it is the domestic or man-loving 

 mosquito which is to be feared, and which is the very 

 fertile source of spreading diseases. As it is with 

 insects, so with the mammals. From the cow man may 

 be infected with tuberculosis, anthrax, and perhaps 

 scarlet fe^'er, from the horse man may accjuire glanders, 

 from the pig trichinosis, and so on. Invariably the 

 higher animals associated with man are liable to suffer 

 from diseases which are also harmful to man, and 

 therefore wliicli they communicate to man by the milk, 

 fiesh, or excreta. Malta fever is an exquisite example 

 of this principle. It cannot be too strenuously insisted 

 upon that tlie domestic economic animals like cattle 

 swine, and sheep and poultry require hygienic super- 



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