Abstract
THE reports of the commission for the investigation of Mediterranean fever, part iv., recently issued, contains a number of important papers. It is shown that in 86 per cent. of patients the Micrococcus melitensis is present in the peripheral blood, but usually not in large numbers (Staff-Surgeon Gilmour, R.N.), that it can be recovered from most of the organs and tissues post mortem, and from the urine, but not from the saliva (Captain Kennedy, R.A.M.C.). A critical examination of the blood for the agglutination reaction, by Fleet-Surgeon Bassett-Smith, R.N., shows that the blood in 148 cases, other than Mediterranean fever, gave an agglutination reaction only in four. The four latter had recently returned from Malta, and, though suffering from other affections at the time, had had the fever. The agglutination test is therefore perfectly trustworthy. Three papers deal with the possible propagation of the disease by insects. Mosquitoes, Culex pipiens and Stegomyia fasciata, were proved to be capable of carrying infection; in one case it was highly probable that a human being had been infected in this way, and experimentally one monkey was thus infected (Major Horrocks and Captain Kennedy). In view of the observations recorded in a previous report of the natural infection of goats with the M. melitensis, the further investigations in this direction are of great interest. Major Horrocks and Captain Kennedy find that 41 per cent. of the goats in Malta are infected, and that in per cent. upp1ying milk excrete the M. melitensis in their milk, and monkeys and goats can be infected by feeding with the infected milk. Cows, bullocks, mules, and in one instance a dog, are other animals proved occasionally to be infe6ted. Like goats, cows may transmit the micro-coccus in their milk (Staff-Surgeon Shaw, RN., and Captain Kennedy). These results suggest that a very important source of human infection is from domestic animals, particularly via milk. Ambulatory cases in man and the excretion of the micrococcus in the urine are also sources by which infection may be transmitted both to man and animals.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mediterranean Fever 1 . Nature 73, 550 (1906). https://doi.org/10.1038/073550a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/073550a0