8 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
Gas GANGRENE. 
Another terrible microbe which has been responsible for 
a great many deaths is the bacillus of gas gangrene. Like 
tetanus, it is a spore-bearing microbe which grows in an 
atmosphere devoid of oxygen and is also found in cultivated 
soil. Its poisons produce gangrene or death of a limb in a few 
hours, with the formation of gas; if an affected limb is placed 
in water, it may fizz like soda-water. This infection is 
exceedingly rare in ordinary civil life. No satisfactory serum 
has yet been discovered for it. 
MEDITERRANEAN OR MALTA FEVER. 
The recent discovery of the cause of Mediterranean Fever 
is one of the most brilliant i the annals of medicine. The 
disease, which is exceedingly difficult to cure and often fatal, 
occurs in India, Africa, China and Europe. It was particularly 
common in our garrison at Malta and Gibraltar. Bruce in 
1886 discovered the Micrococcus melitensis, and proved it to 
be the cause of Mediterranean Fever, partly by the experimental 
infection of monkeys; but the mystery as to the spread of 
this disease remained. In 1904, the Royal Society sent a 
Commission to Malta to investigate how the fever was conveyed. 
They proved by experiments that it was not carried by air 
nor by drinking water, nor by sewage, nor by contact, nor 
by biting insects. Then suddenly the mystery was solved. 
Goats’ milk was the infecting agent. The Commission found 
that half the goats in the island were infected with the micro- 
coccus, and 10 per cent. were actually secreting the germs 
in their milk. Monkeys fed with the milk of these goats almost 
invariably contracted the disease. The remedy was obvious. 
The officers and men in the garrison were prohibited under 
severe penalties from drinking goats’ milk—and the result 
was marvellous, 
