SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17984, 1 April 1930, Page 9

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH.

UNDULANT FEVER. A WOMAN’S GREAT WORK. FOLLOWED ON BY EXPERTS. (W. Sharland, in Pharmacy Journal.) Someone perpetrated the saying that “genius is a capacity for taking infinite pains,” and the world has caught on to the expression. I should lie inclined to say that “science” should be substituted for the word “genius.” Genius seems to be born in the mind, from some unknown source —not in any way from taking pains, or by rule-ol’-thumb exercises of mind or body. A genius may be a scientist, but a scientist c.an become a genius by taking infinite pains. Neither is scientific investigation always undertaken by the dyed-in-the-wool holder of degrees of science, but here and there we find people without any particular training in science discovering some great fact, Some Secret in Nature, by the use of horse sense, observation, or suddenly by some intuitive method not common io humanity or to scientists in particular. Such investigators, outside the pale of the self-constituted illuminati, have generally a hard road to travel, sometimes ending with a martyr’s crown — villification, contradiction, pompous pooh-poohing for daring to find out or advance an idea that is not sponsored by the illuminati. No more striking instance of this kind of thing is required than the history of Alice C. Evans, an American woman, who established the fact that there lurks in milk, of whatever grade of purity, and from high-grade cows, a germ which is a ghastly menace to human life and health unless every particle of milk produced in a country is pasteurised at 145 degrees Fahrenheit. This disease infection, now known as undulant fever, in 1929 was more prevalent than typhoid fever in America. It is a wasting fever, accompanied by pain and exhaustion, and sometimes death, fastening on to people over periods of lw>o to seven years. It was estimated by Dr. Walter Simpson that 50.000 people werp sick at one. time with this mysterious disease, and Physicians Were Quite Baffled. This complaint, bringing with ii shooting pains, drenching sweats, and wasting of the system, with months-long fevers, was diagnosed by a baffled army of physicians as typhoid, tuberculosis, infected teeth, pneumonia, appendicitis, Bright’s disease, low blood' pressure, etc. The disease was not recognised until Alice C. Evans stumbled on the amazing fact that it was none other than the longknown contagious abortion of cows, a disease widely known in every grade of cows and in the purest milk. After many years of patient study and investigation she was able to identify the bacterium of contagious abortion with that of the abortus bacterium of Professor Bang from Danish cows and the bacterium or coccus of Dr. Bruce, and called Mediterranean or Maltese fever, contracted from drinking goat’s milk. Alice Evans contracted the disease herself, has suffered for seven years, and was in John Hopkins Hospital in 1 929. Although medical science knew of contagious abortion, Mediterranean fever, and the bacterium of Professor Bang, no one knew that this mysterious ailment amongst a whole continent was due to the germ of contagious abortion of cows, or that this contagion bad any connection, bacteriologically, with other contagion. There has been

No Cure for this Ghastly Disease, hut absolute prevention is possible by pasteuerisation at 145 degrees Fahrenheit. In tracing up causes Alice. Evans found medical records from 1905 that a number of nanny-goats had been shipped on a foreign vessel to U.S.A., and that the captain and all the crew, drinking goats’ milk on the voyage, were all prostrated and down with Maltese fever. A British commission, reporting on' this fever, prevalent in Hie Mediterranean coasts and islands, decided that this disease was contracted purely from drinking goats’ milk. Professor Bang isolated the same coccus from Danish cows, but it was left to Alice Evans, a mere haceeriological assistant, to identify this disease with the undulant fever ravaging America, and prove that even in the purest milk, from high-class certified herds and dairies, there lurked tills frightful menace to human life. The momentous conclusion she came to was that the data recorded and collected by her led to Hie grave conclusion that all milk is safer for consumption after it is pasteurised—a very modest claim. Scientists and experts knew of the existence of contagious abortion in cows in America, but failed to identify this with the I undulant fever raging in U.S.A. Alice j Evans, Considered a Perverse idiot iii the eyes of the experts, struggled on. She obtained. cultures of Maltese fever bacillus, and those of contagious abortion in cows, experimenting with both cultures on guinea pigs. They both gave llie same results —-death, aud accompanied by abortion. To use her own words: "I saw what it all meant; 1 knew that there’was abortion in herds all over America, and that cows were excreting In their milk the bacillus of Dr. Bang and the bacillus of Dr. Bruce, Maltese or Mediterranean fever”; and, from the fact of Maltese fever attacking human beings, “it would seem remarkable that we do not have a disease attacking human beings in the States similar to Maltese fever.” For six years her discovery was practically ignored, except by a few; hut when her ideas and ascertained facts were confirmed from scientific centres ail over the world the Americans began to sit up and take notice. Fleiscliner and Meyer found that bacterium .abortus was often present in certified milk produced in San Francisco Bay region; blood tests on women who had lost their babies revealed this bacillus, but the fact remained that none of the great institutions for medical research, none of the extensive Foundations, with all their paraphernalia and scientific staffs, ever detected a single case of Maltese or undulant fever due to the bacterium abortus of cows. Alice Evans suddenly found that she was becoming internationally famous, but still Amercia was comparatively silent and unappreciative. Then investigations after investigations were made, and All Kinds of Puzzling Compiaints became traceable to the one cause, and in every case traceable to people who

drank raw milk, not pasteurised. To-day Alice Evens, broken down in health lb rough undulanl l ever, Ibis lone worker, without degrees or qualifications, has been honoured with the presidency or the learned Society or American Bacteriologists; to-day * she •stands, a true scientist; with infinite patience, dogged work; and probably intuitive knowledge, she has accomplished a great work for humanity. it is hard to know how far this deadly disease lias spread over the world, or if it exists in a virulent form in Australia. Certainly it exists in local herds, and it is equally certain that no actual proof can he forthcoming, except through blood tests and inoculation of guinea pigs or perhaps rabbits. If the germ docs exist all over Australia it should have gone some way to affect the reproduction of rabbits, unless they are immune lo contagion.It is sufficiently alarming to know that contagious abortion exists in Australia in some form, and it is a known fact that there have been cases which have baffled physicians quite enough to have some serious and prolonged investigation made by tile authorities,, and one cannot help concluding, with Alice Evans, that until-such test and investigations arc made, it would be safer that all raw milk be pasteurised or that Ihe public be warned not lo drink raw milk unless they pasteurise their own supplies to 145 degrees Fahrenheit. Some Conclusions and Questions are important to Australians— (1) Does contagious abortion exist amongst cows and goats in this country, and is the contagion virulent or communicated to human beings through drinking raw milk? (2) If so, is the bacterium identical with Maltese fever; (2) Have any blood tests been made, or inoculations? (4) Js there any existing law as lo pasteurisation? (o) Has any mysterious disease broken out with drinkers of raw milk, especially with children? (C) Are there any records of baffling complaints by physicians 'l