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A summary of how Sir David Bruce discovered the cause of Malta Fever, also called brucellosis
Early DaysHe was not a model soldier. Tactless and insubordinate, David Bruce did not join the British Army Medical Service because he was attracted to soldiering – he wished to marry. Born in 1855 in Melbourne, Bruce graduated in medicine from the University of Edinburgh in 1881. But short of funds, engaged to be married, and unwilling to wait until he had built up a successful medical practice, he enlisted in 1883. Posted to MaltaBy joining the army he had a guaranteed salary, and the newlyweds soon found themselves in Malta, where Bruce had been ordered to the British garrison. Here, they soon encountered Malta fever, or “undulant fever”, the symptoms of which include night sweats, undue fatigue, weight loss and headache. Primitive LaboratoryDetermined to find its cause, he set up a primitive laboratory in an abandoned shack, where he spent weeks experimenting to find a suitable culture media in which he could grow the organism, if that’s what it was. He even purchased monkeys out of his own salary so that he could inject them with the blood of infected soldiers. Bacterium IdentifiedIn 1887, David Bruce identified the bacterium that was the cause of Malta fever in humans, having successfully isolated the organism from the spleens of British soldiers dying from the disease. This was thanks in no small measure to his wife. Mary Steele Bruce had trained in the laboratory of Robert Koch, who discovered the cause of tuberculosis, and she became his laboratory assistant for another thirty years. On his deathbed David Bruce was emphatic that Mary Steele Bruce’s role in his scientific work should be fully acknowledged. In permanent recognition of the Bruces’ achievement, Malta fever is known worldwide as brucellosis, which is caused by the Brucella organism. Brucellosis is transmitted through contaminated and untreated milk and milk products and by direct contact with infected animals (cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, camels, seals), animal carcasses and abortion materials. Professor of PathologyBut in 1888, as Bruce was about to begin studies on how his newly-discovered organism was transmitted, he was ordered first to Egypt, and then back to the Army Medical School at Netley, where, as an assistant professor of pathology, he taught for five years. The source of the organism would not be discovered until 1904, when Brucella was cultured from milk and urine of aparently healthy goats. When consumption of raw goat’s milk by the soldiers was stopped, the incidence of brucellosis declined sharply.
The copyright of the article David Bruce in Diseases/Viruses is owned by George Frederick Winter. Permission to republish David Bruce in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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