Goat Fever

In the Naval Hospital at Washington, Dr. Edward Francis was a patient last week, suffering from Malta fever. For several days his temperature was high, 103 degrees and above. But it was certain to go down to normal. As certainly, after a period of ease, it will go high again. Such is the characteristic of the disease, and hence its variant name, undulant fever. It is endemic along the Mediterranean coasts, particularly on the Island of Malta. In the U. S. Texas is the pest area. Those regions raise goats and goats are the carriers of the disease.*

Dr. Francis, officer of the U. S. Public Health Service, caught the disease while studying its microorganism, Micrococcus melitensis. It is the second febrile disease he has contracted in the public health service. The other was rabbit fever, which hunters, butchers and furriers are apt to catch from infected rabbits (TIME, June 18 & Nov. 26). Academically, rabbit fever is termed tularemia, after Tulare County, Calif., where in 1910 it was first identified. Doctors, however, prefer to call it Francis Disease, in honor of Dr. Francis, who isolated the germ (Bacterium tularense) to his own harm, malaise and inconvenience.

* Ewes, asses, horses, mules, cows and monkeys are also susceptible to Malta fever.