298 Manual of Veterinary Microbiology. 



sions and exacerbations, and leading to the emaciation 

 of the affected birds. A catarrhal inflammation 

 which sometimes occurs in the attacked mucous 

 membranes, by provoking glairy morbid secretions, 

 aggravates the cachexia and hastens the fatal termina- 

 tion. 



Lofiler attributes the disease to a special bacillus, 

 staining by the methods of Gram and Weigert, which 

 he met with in the fluid products of the inflamed 

 mucous membranes, in the false membranes, the 

 lesions of the liver, and in the blood. This bacillus 

 has nearly the same dimensions as that of human 

 diphtheria but it is smoother and more uniform in 

 thickness. It is abundantly present in the superficial 

 layer of the false membranes, rare or absent in the 

 deep layers. Along with this specific bacillus other 

 microbes are constantly found in the concrete exu- 

 dates. 



Lofiler reproduced avian diphtheria in the rabbit 

 and the pigeon ; death, when it occurred, supervened 

 less quickly than with the human bacillus. The 

 guinea pig and the dog are also more sensitive to the 

 latter bacillus than to that of birds. Lofiler culti- 

 vated and described the microbe and with it repro- 

 duced the disease in birds and the rabbit by inoculation 

 of cultures on the mucous membrane, on the skin, 

 and in the subcutaneous cellular tissue. 



The disease is propagated by means of the morbid 

 matters (discharge, fseces, false membranes) of the dis- 

 eased animals. The virus gains entrance into the 

 organism of healthy animals with the food or by the 

 air. Contamination most frequently takes places in 

 an indirect manner but may also occur directly. M. 



