SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT. 117 



INFECTION. 



We have been almost equally fortunate with other contagious in- 

 fections. But quite recently a very fatal one has broken out among 

 the quail. Bacteriological examination has shown the infective 

 agent to be a member of the Proteus group of bacteria. Quar- 

 antining the sick birds and a thorough disinfection of their quar- 

 ters will probably prevent the spread of this very common fowl 

 disease. 



Some study has been put upon the subject of an infectious 

 process affecting the gums and buccal mucosa of certain rep- 

 tiles, causing the formation of a necrotic membrane, and the 

 production of exuberant granulations about the fangs of these 

 animals. The probable cause of the disease has been identified 

 as a bacillus which occasionally becomes distributed throughout 

 the blood, producing a septic condition with the formation of 

 multiple infarctions. One of the large pythons died from this 

 disease, and at post-mortem the gross lesions produced were 

 found to resemble very closely those of tuberculosis. Careful 

 bacteriological examination eliminated this possibility. In a 

 recent number of a medical journal, a case of tuberculosis is re- 

 ported in a python in Chicago. I question the possibility of a 

 true tuberculosis in an animal of so low a normal temperature, 

 and, unless microscopic and bacteriological examination cor- 

 roborated this diagnosis, I should infer that the disease was iden- 

 tical with that studied by us. 



PARASITES. 



Naturally, diseased conditions produced by other parasites 

 have been common, though as a rule rarely fatal, and this has 

 been the subject of a good many observations, though the field 

 has been by no means covered on account of an over-abundance 

 of material. 



The average animal which dies at the Park contains intestinal 

 parasites, and sometimes several varieties are present in a single 

 animal. The most common forms found are various taenia and 

 nematodes. No particular study has been made upon these forms. 



Numerous examples of the strongyloides intestinalis were 

 found in the diarrhceal discharge of one of the buffalo, and in the 

 opinion of Dr. Miller this parasite very likely acted as one of the 

 etiological factors of the diarrhoea. 



