Evening star., 1928-11-27
RENOWNED SCIENTIST
CONTRACTS DISEASE
FROM EXPERIMENTS
Continued From First Page.)

waves in the afflicted patient, running
| from two or three weeks at time. A
| patient apparently RECEIVERS for period,
| only to be stricken again. 1t is from
| this course of the disease that 1t gets
its name of undulant fever.
The fever was originally discovered,
DR.. Pierce said. about 40 years ago on
the Island of Malta, and at that time
was found to come from the milk OF
goats. the practice in that country be-
ing for the milk man to drive around
his herd and milk the goats as the
product was ordered. ~
1t also is known as goat fever. The
Public Health Service during the past
few years, as the result Of research of
Dr. Francis, has discovered that cattle
in this country have 1t, and that they
| pass 1t on to humans through raw milk.
Pasteurization, it was explained, will
kill the germ.
Once a COW in a herd becomes af-
| f1icted with the fever, 1T spreads rapid
| ly through the group.
Dr. Francis has regarded the fever
as of great importance as a disease of
temperate climates. He has pointed
out that while typhoid fever is decreas-
| ing in importance, undulant fever is a
coming disease of the temperate re-
gions of the United States and Europe
and may take the place in Importance
now occupied by typhoid.
1t was pointed out that at present
| typhoid is decreasing in Iowa, and a
study Of undulant fever in that State
revealed more cases than of typhoid
during a given period.
Reporting on the symptoms of the
| disease, DR.. Francis says that in many
cases there is loss of weight, and it
resembles tuberculosis. The chills, fever,
sweat and vomiting are strongly sug-
gest1ve Of malaria. There is case
cited with involvement of the joints
which was recognized as undulant fever
after cultures from material drawn off
from the joint revealed the presence of
the germ. Although 1t was said there
have been no recent reports OF the
prevalence or the disease in this Sec
ton of the country as far as humans
| are concerned, it was disclosed that q
large dairy herd at St. Elizabeth's Hos
pital here was recently cleared of the
disease.
Two or three surgeons of the Public
Health Service some time ago contract
ed the disease in the laboratory together
with laboratory worker, it was said.
DR.. Francis, when he first started the
study of tularemia, or rabbit fever,
oNOuV yCdAo uSO, NOALCL dNOG0 SAAoI
disease and subsequently cured himself
as a result of his research
Subsequent to that time he has had
two relapses, according to DR.. C. C.
Mccoy. director of the hygienic labora-
tory here, and as result of this af-
Fiction ne finally succeeded in isolat-
ing the germ.
DR.. Francis was awarded a gold
medal on June % of this year by the
| American Medical Association during
its annual meeting in Minneapolis for
his research work in tularemia. In
the presentation, the committee on
awards stated that DR.. Francis con-
tributions to knowledge of the disease
which had perplexed medical men for
years, were the most important medi-
cal works of the year, judged on the
basis of originality.
DIR. Francis himself contracted
tularemia while studying his first case
in Utah.