[Historical brief on the fever of Malta]

Malta fever (brucellosis) is an infectious disease of cattle (chiefly goats) which can infect man. Although the disease is not limited to Malta, occurring also in other mediterranean countries as well as in Asia and America, it was originally described in 1863 in Malta where the responsible bacteria (Brucella melitensis) was discovered in 1887 by D. Bruce. Ten years later Wright & Smith (1897) showed that the agglutination test originally established for typhoidic patients could be used for the diagnosis of Malta fever. Finally the conclusions of the Commission for the investigation of Mediterranean fever (1905-1907) are briefly recalled.