Is Bacterium Abortus Pathogenic for Human Beings?

The remarkable discovery made by Evans, 1 that the causative organism of undulant fever in man and that of Bang's abortion disease in cattle were similar if not identical, has brought forth considerable confirmatory evidence in this country and in Europe. These findings have served as a stimulus to observe more closely the possibility of man acquiring a fever from handling or ingesting material containing Bacterium abortus . Already many cases of illness in man in which the main symptom was characterized by recurrent fever have been cleared by the proper application of the knowledge that Evans has given us. Cooledge 2 was probably the first to conduct experiments to determine the possibility of Bacterium abortus infecting man. At the time, he had no knowledge as to the relation of Micrococcus melitensis to Bacterium abortus , or what the nature of the disease would be if infection took place. The serologic tests