Gull undergoing careful necropsy at the Patuxent Center to disclose whether lesions or otlier ahnormalities of a 

 pathological nature are present and associated with its death. (Photo by Rex G. Schmidt) 



Lake Michigan in the fall of 190:^ and into the 

 winter of 1963-64. An estimated ;},600 loons suc- 

 cumbed. Because the epidemic coincided roughly 

 with the occurrence of several human cases of 

 type E botulism (traced to improperly processed 

 Great Lakes fish), it was suspected that diseases 



in birds and man had a common etiological agent. 

 The suspicion was strengthened when Michigan 

 Conservation Department and Michigan State 

 I^niversity workers demonstrated Clontridium 

 hotnlinum. type E toxin in the tissues of some of 

 the dead birds. Experiments were designed, 



53 



