788 EXPERIMENT STATION EECOKD. 



Scabies of the rabbit, W. Jowett {Jour. Compar. Path, and Ther., 2't (1911), 

 No. 2, pp. J,l'i-J3(), j'Kjx. 2). — The author records cases in which the trunks of 

 rabbits were affected. 



Tuberculosis in fowls {Michigan 8ta. Circ. 12, pp. S3-S6 figs. 2). — Atten- 

 tion is called to the importance of an early recognition of this disease, which 

 has been found in flocks in several counties of Michijijau and occasionally in 

 market chickens. Mention is made of a large flock of mixed Black Minorcas 

 and Brown Leghorns that was found in Livingston County, badly affected with 

 tuberculosis. Attention is also directed to the fact that the tubercle bacillus 

 has been found in the white of eggs of affected fowls and to the danger of infec- 

 tion in drawing the intestines and other viscera of diseased birds. 



" When a positive diagnosis has been made, the best solution of the problem 

 seems to be to kill the whole flock and use those not aft'ected for food, burning 

 the diseased ones. After this, a careful disinfection of the chicken house and 

 yards is necessary before it is safe to introduce new birds. As a preventive 

 may be recommended the exclusion of the disease by raising stock from eggs 

 known to have come from healthy birds, and refusal to buy stock from poultry- 

 men that can not offer evidence of flocks free from tuberculosis." 



The infective granule in certain protozoal infections, as illustrated by 

 the spirochetosis of Sudanese fowls, A. Balfour {Brit. Med. Jour., 1011, No. 

 2622, p. 752). — The author, working in Khartum, has found through use of 

 the dark-field method, especially by practicing liver puncture on chicks at 

 the crisis or on chicks which have been given a sufliciently large dose of 

 " Salvarsan," that in the liver in particular, also in the spleen and lungs the 

 causative agent of fowl spirochetosis undergoes a remarkable change. The 

 spirochetes discharge spherical granules from their periplastic sheath which 

 apparently enter the red cells, develop in them, and complete a cycle of 

 schizogony. It is stated that Fry, who confirms the author's observations, " has 

 previously seen a shedding-off of granules by trypanosomes in the peripheral 

 blood of experimental animals." The author thinks that it is these spirochete 

 granules in the liver, spleen, and lungs, and possibly also in other internal 

 organs, that invade the red cells. " Such a chain of events fully explains all the 

 puzzling features which this intracorpuscular infection has hitherto presented, 

 and, moreover, brings it into line with the infective granules found in the ticks, 

 for these very closely I'esemble those seen in liver juice films, both when ex- 

 amined by the dark-field method and when stained by the Levaditi process." 



That these granules have not previously been observed is thought to be ex- 

 plained by the fact that they apparently do not take on the Romanowsky stain. 

 The author's observations lead him to conclude that this fowl spirochete must 

 be classed as a species, for which he proposes the name Spirochceta granulosa 

 penetrans. Since these granules have been found to be resistant forms, it is 

 thought that their presence in countless numbers in the tissues may explain 

 part of the mechanism of relapse and the difficulty in curing completely some 

 of the chronic, spirochetal infections, such as, for example, syphilis and yaws. 



Feeding experiments in fowl spirochetosis, A. Balfour {Lancet [London}, 

 1911, II, No. .'i, pp. 223, 22.'t). — In feeding experiments here reported, the author 

 has found that "if healthy chicks be fed on ticks {Argas persicus), which 

 themselves have recently fed on birds infected with Spirochwta granulosa pene- 

 trans, the fowl spirochete of the Soudan, the chicks speedily develop spiroche- 

 tosis. Not only so, but if healthy chicks be fed on a sufficient number of ticks 

 which, having fed a long time previously on spirochete infected birds, harbor, 

 not spirochetes, but granules only, these chicks likewise become infected through 

 the alimentary canal. In both cases the incubation period is short, in one 

 instance it was very short, and it may be said that care was taken to exclude 

 any other possible source of infection." 



