220 



I congratulate the gentleman who does not wish his name 

 to appear. Melting into nothingness before the war fleet of 

 science, he has gained a glorious victory over the fishing fleet 

 of dates. There is however a fl}' in the ointment. The fishing 

 fleet turns out not to belong to the enemy, but to a neutral 

 power which even he dare not attack in cold blood. 



" O fortuna, ut nunquam perpetuo es bona 1 " 



AVIAN TUBERCUIvOSIS :— The readers of the above 

 alluded to contemporary have lately been receiving some 

 instruction on this malady at the hands of a medical man, who 

 has a righteous horror of whom he calls the " self-constituted 

 experts of Bird Notesy In a lengthy letter in their July 

 number, the appearance of whicli had been previously 

 announced in one of the weekl}' papers to the glorification of 

 its writer as a pathologist, he informed us that he had found 

 the disease in two Gouldians and two Canaries, and that 

 according to Prof. Nocard it is common among birds. In a 

 private letter to myself he also told me that he had traced 

 fatal cases of consumption in humans to infection from 

 Canaries. Now if these statements are true the matter is a 

 very serious one, and our action in keeping phthisical chamber 

 pets, and in maintaining bird rooms swarming with the tubercle 

 bacillus, is one which will soon call for legislative interference. 



I therefore challenged this gentleman (or any body else) to 

 produce a cage bird suffering from Tuberculosis, that had not 

 been deliberately inoculated for the purpose, and to demonstrate 

 the tubercle bacillus in its organs. Although it is ethically 

 incumbent upon every one who assumes the position of a 

 scientific investigator to come forward w^ith proofs of his 

 advertised results when called upon, this gentlemen declined 

 the challenge in the following words. " If the observations and 

 " researches of such eminent Bacteriologists as Nocard, 

 " Villemin and Hewlett fail to convince Dr. W. G. Creswell 

 " that Avian Tuberculosis does exist amongst birds, I am 

 " afraid that he must excuse me from trying to do so." 



In this sentence there is a distinct and emphatic insiima- 

 tion that I deny the existence of Avian Tuberculosis. We will 

 enquire how far that is justified. In the first place it so happens 

 that I am, and have been for some time, engaged in research 

 in Hewlett's own laboratory upon the disease which is so 

 universally mistaken by the imperfectly informed for Avian 

 Tuberculosis. It niaj' therefore be safely accepted that Prof. 

 Hewlett knows what I am doing, and that there is no difference 

 of opinion between us on the subject in hand. Secondh', 



