The disease caused undulant fever in men and abortion in goats. It is transmitted by goat milk. In 1886, Bruce led the Malta Fever Commission that investigated the epidemic. Between 1886 and 1887, he studied five patients having Malta fever who died of the disease. From the spleen of corpses, he recovered a bacterium which he referred to as Micrococcus, which he described:

When a minute portion taken from one of these [culture] colonies is placed in a drop of sterilized water and examined under a high power [of microscope], innumerable small micrococci are seen. They are very active and dance about--as a rule singly, sometimes in pairs, rarely in short chains.

Bruce's

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