fection. The works of Good and Smith (Kentucky), Doyle and Spray (Indiana), Hayes and Traum (California), Connaway, Durant, and Newman (Missouri), Hadley and Beach (Wisconsin), and Weeter (Illinois) show that abortus infection is prevalent among swine in this country. Apparently it is only in recent years that contagious abortion has become a common disease among swine. The earliest publication in which the etiological agent of infectious abortion in swine was demonstrated is that of Good and Smith in 1916. Hayes and Traum state that the disease is becoming increasingly prevalent, and Hadley and Beach state that it was not until 1920 that reports of sporadic outbreaks of abortion in sows in Wisconsin became numerous enough to indicate the disease was assuming the nature of an enzootic. Several investigators of contagious abortion in swine have regarded porcine strains as more virulent than strains from bovine Cotton and, later, Schroeder and Cotton studied several porcine strains and found them more virulent for guinea pigs than bovine strains. Hadley and Beach and Hayes also found porcine strains more virulent for guinea pigs than bovine strains. Hadley and Beach found, further, that porcine strains were more highly pathogenic for swine than bovine strains, although there was no difference between strains from the two sources when tested on heifers. Césari has called attention to the fact that in France the majority of cases of Malta fever which were not attributable to goats have been among men engaged in slaughterhouses. He cites the two cases reported by Auclair and Braun, in which sheep carcasses were suspected as the source of infection; and three cases among butchers reported by Gouget, Agasse-Lafont, and Weil. Considering the exalted virulence of porcine strains of Br. melitensis, the prevalence of swine infection, the susceptibility to Malta fever of butchers in France, and the histories of the two cases here reported, it would appear that watchfulness for Malta fever among butchers and others who handle hogs or hog carcasses in this country might reveal that the disease is more prevalent than is generally suspected. REPORT OF A CASE OF BR. MELITENSIS INFECTION IN NORTH CAROLINA On April 28, 1925, a serum was received from Dr. C. T. Smith, of Rocky Mount, N. C. The patient was a butcher. After examination of the blood had eliminated typhoid fever and malaria, tularaemia was suspected, and the serum was sent to the Hygienic Laboratory for diagnosis. Agglutination was negative with Bacter ium tularense antigen but positive with Brucella melitensis in dilutions up to 1 to 320. On May 8, 1925, a second sample of blood was received which had been drawn the preceding day. The serum was absorbed with antigens of the abortus and the melitensus A varieties of Br. melitensis. The results, given in Table I, indicate that the infection was with the melitensis A variety. The blood clot was planted in broth and on glucose agar slopes, but Br. melitensis could not be cultivated. TABLE I.-Absorption of agglutinins from the serum from the Rocky Mount, N. C., patient indicate that the infection was with the melitensis A variety 1 See Table I and III of the first paper of this bulletin for information concerning the strains used for these tests. Strain 456 is of the abortus variety, and strain 428 is of the melitensis A variety. 14, complete sedimentation; 3, supernatant turbidity as in a control tube containing 25 per cent as much antigen as in the tubes in which the test was carried out; 2, supernatant turbidity as in a control tube containing 50 per cent of the antigen; 1, supernatant turbidity as in a control tube containing 75 per cent of the antigen. 'The absorptions were with antigens of a density of 75,000 parts per million in a 1 to 5 dilution of the serum. On May 16, 1925, Dr. Edward Francis, of the Hygienic Laboratory, saw the patient and obtained the following history: The patient, D. C. F., about 35 years of age, conducts a store at Rocky Mount, N. C., where beef, pork, mutton, veal, chickens, and rabbits are sold. He denied having handled goat meat, except on one occasion two or three years ago, when he secured goat meat for some one who wanted it. He drinks a little raw dairy milk which is certified by the health department but is not pasteurized. The patient grew up as a practical country butcher, slaughtering cattle and hogs, rarely sheep, but no goats. He has done no slaughtering for the past three years. Three or four years ago he had what the doctor called blood poisoning after sticking a bone in his thumb. A sore developed on his finger, he had fever, and was confined to bed for 30 days. The present illness began about March 1, 1925. During March the patient managed to go about, but at nights he had chills, fever, and sweats. He was confined to bed during April, and lost 20 pounds in weight. He took 25 grains of quinine daily during April. He has been free of fever since May 5, but he has not regained his usual vigor. Doctor Smith stated that no goat milk is sold in Rocky Mount, and to his knowledge there are no goat herds in the vicinity. There seems to be no possibility that this infection could have come from goats, but there is no indication from what other species of animal it was derived. BIBLIOGRAPHY American Public Health Association (1920): Standard methods for the examination of water and sewage. 4th ed. Boston, p. 4. ANGLADA, JEAN. 1912.-Recherches sur la séro-réaction de Wright. Comptes. rend. Soc. de Biol., 72, 378-380. ARCHIBALD, R. G. 1923.-An unusual and fatal case of undulant fever contracted in Khartoum. J. Trop. Med. and Hyg., Lond., 26, 55-57. 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H., MCNAUGHT, J. G., KENNEDY, J. C., and Zammit, T. 1907.-The goat as a factor in the dissemination of Mediterranean fever. Reports on the Commission appointed by the Admiralty, the War Office, and the Civil Government of Malta for the investigation of Mediterranean fever. Pt. 6: p. 7-44. FABYAN, MARSHAL. 1913.-A note on the presence of B. abortus in cow's milk. J. Med. Res., Bost., 28, 85-89. FEUSIER, M. L., and MEYER, K. F. 1920.-Principles in serologic grouping of B. abortus and B. melitensis. Correlation between absorption and agglutination tests. Studies on the genus Brucella nov. gen. II. J. Infect. Dis., Chicago, 27, 185-206. FICAI, GUISEPPE, and ALESSANDRINI, ALESSANDRO. 1925.-Setticemia da Bacillus abortus (Bang) nell'uomo. Il Policlinico, Sez. Prat. Rome, 32, 113–115. FICI, VINCENZO. 1922.-Richerche sul potere agglutinante del siero di sangue dei tubercolotici verso il micrococco di Bruce. Arch. di patol. e clin. med., Bologna, 1, 437-452. FLEISCHNER, E. C., and MEYER, K. F. 1918. The bearing of cutaneous hypersensitiveness on the pathogenicity of the Bacillus abortus bovinus. Am. J. Dis. Child., Chicago, 16, 268-273. FLEISCHNER, E. C., MEYER, K. F. 1920.-Preliminary observations on the pathogenicity for monkeys of the Bacillus abortus bovinus. Trans. Pediatric Soc., 32, 141-146. FLEISCHNER, E. C., MEYER, K. F., and SHAW, E. B. 1919.—A résumé on some experimental studies on cutaneous hypersensitiveness. Am. J. Dis. Child. 18, 577-590. |