An account of the discovery of a hitherto undescribed infective disease occurring among the population of Rangoon.

First description of melioidosis. Together with C.S. Krishnaswami, Whitmore identified Burkholderia pseudomallei, the causative agent of melioidosis (also known as "Whitmore's disease") in opium addicts in Rangoon in 1911. He differentiated it from Burkholderia mallei, the causative agent of glanders, by clinical and microbiological features.The organism isolated was subsequently named Pfeifferella whitmori by Stanton and Fletcher.