V • XI XV.' 



Mlcrobic Diseases Individually Considered. 177 



it is passed in succession through small birds (cana- 

 ries, etc.). 



Infectious enteritis of chickens. 



Under the name of infectious enteritis, Klein has 

 described an epizootic disease of chickens which has 

 much resemblance to cholera; the initial symptom is 

 diarrhoea; the subjects are quiet but never show the 

 somnolence so characteristic of cholera. Death oc- 

 curs in twenty-four to thirty-six hours after the first 

 manifestations of the disease. 



The intestinal contents, the blood and the splenic 

 tissue contain a special bacillus measuring 0-8// to 

 1*6// in length by 0'3/i to 0'4/i in thickness. The 

 chickens naturally become infected by ingestion 

 of contaminated substances. Inoculation of the blood 

 of a diseased chicken into the subcutaneous tissue of 

 another, results in the death of the latter; but the 

 inoculated animal remains well during the first five 

 days and dies on the seventh to the ninth, whilst 

 chickens similarly inoculated with fowl cholera suc- 

 cumb in twenty-four to thirty-six hours. Finally, 

 the bacillus of the disease described by Klein appears 

 not to be pathogenic for the rabbit or pigeon, thus 

 differing from that of cholera. 



Epizootic dysentery of chickens and ducks. 



M. Lucet, veterinarian at Courtenay, has studied 

 another epizootic disease of domestic fowls, which he 

 has named epizootic dysentery of chickens and ducks; a 

 summer disease as deadly as the two preceding, this 

 dysentery especially attacks young chickens of the 

 same year, and gives rise to symptoms which strongly 

 recall those of cholera : somnolence, lassitude, inap- 



