Malta Fever / by David Bruce.

  • Bruce, David, Sir, 1855-1931.
Date:
[date of publication not identified]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Malta Fever / by David Bruce. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    13/38
    Malta fever is a disease of summer, most cases occurring in July, whereas enteric fever is a disease of autumn and early winter. Fig. 31. 5. Mode of Dissemination.—Malta fever is never, as far as I know, transmitted directly from person to person. In the hospitals in Malta, although cases are to be found all the year round scattered through the various wards, there is no evidence that it has been communicated to any of the other patients in a single instance. As I have before stated, it is impossible with our present knowledge to say whether the poison gains entrance to the organism by the respiratory or alimentary organs. The tendency is to believe that it floats in the air, especially in the neighbourhood of foul, drains or other insanitary conditions, and so reaches the body by being breathed in. A bad smell, per se, cannot give rise to a specific fever, although it may lower the general health and so predispose to disease. Since this fever is caused by a definite vegetable organism, it is difficult to picture such a particle rising into the air from fluid or solid substances in which it may be supposed to find a suitable soil for growth. On this account it is probable that Malta fever, like typhoid, is chiefly carried by means of the drinking water or other fluid or solid foods to which the contagium has gained access. 6. Incubation.—It is impossible to state definitely how long the period of incubation is, but it ranges probably from a few days to twenty or thirty. In an epidemic which broke out in the Verdala barracks in Malta, the first cases occurred six days after the arrival of the regiment. Again, instances are on record in which the disease has broken out in individuals on their arrival in England, fourteen and seventeen days after leaving Malta. But the important