Treatment of Undulant Fever

THIS report is a summary of results obtained from the treatment of 100 cases of undulant fever with Brucellin. This disease has a tendency to become chronic following the acute stage, so that the chronic phase may be the more serious condition from a standpoint of the general health of the patient. It was therefore necessary to obtain data on the actual effectiveness of the therapeutic agent in bringing about complete recovery rather than to appraise it on the basis of a rapid termination of the acute stage. A large percentage of the cases were checked many months after cessation of the specific treatment. Clinical diagnosis of undulant fever is not easy particularly in the chronic type and in children. The presence of specific agglutinins in the blood may furnish confirmatory evidence but cannot be relied upon, since the blood of many individuals shows Brucella agglutinins, sometimes in high titer, and a negative test does not always exclude this infection. A further aid is the intradermal test with Brucella allergin. This test does not distinguish between sensitization as the result of a previous infection and infection at the time the test is made. A new preparation which is a nucleoprotein suspensoid known as "Brucin " is now being studied. Fur-