BACILLUS AVISEPTICUS 221 



These names, however, have not been generally adopted and are only 

 used by the French. It is preferable, as Hutyra and Marek point 

 out, to retain the name Bacillus bipolaris septicus and to use as dis- 

 tinguishing designation the names Bacillus avisepticus, bovisepticus, 

 suisepticus, etc. Kitt proposed the term Bacillus plurisepticus as 

 the common name for all these bacteria. The disease which they 

 produce in such a large variety of animals he designated as septiccemia 

 pluriformis or septiccemia polymorpha. 



BACILLUS AVISEPTICUS (BACILLUS OF FOWL CHOLERA). 



Historical and Occurrence. This disease of chickens and other 

 domestic birds is also known as chicken cholera, fowl typhoid (Gefliigel- 

 typhoid, German), Pasteurelosis avium (cholera des poules, French). 

 It is one of the diseases due to bacilli of the hemorrhagic septicemia 

 group, and has long attracted the attention of breeders and veterin- 

 arians. It was first described toward the close of the eighteenth 

 century, and its extremely contagious character was recognized by 

 Delafond and Renault in 1851. Perroncito, in 1878, first saw the 

 causative microorganisms in the blood of fowls which had died from 

 the disease, but he mistook it for a diplococcus, an excusable error 

 at this early stage of the study of pathogenic bacteria. Toussaint, 

 in 1879, and Pasteur, in 1880, confirmed Perroncito's findings. The 

 two French investigators also cultivated the organism in chicken 

 broth, and Pasteur showed that it could be attenuated in artificial 

 cultures and afterward used as a protective virus. This work of 

 Pasteur was the first of its kind, and it became a fruitful source of 

 further attempts in the preparation of attenuated cultures to be used 

 as protective vaccines. Kitt, Ligniere, Rivolta, Zuern, Celli, Solomon, 

 and others subsequently studied the bacillus causing fowl cholera, 

 and with the exception of the bacillus of bubonic plague, it is at 

 present the best-known organism of the group of bacilli of hemorrhagic 

 septicemia. 



Fowl cholera is very prevalent in Europe (with the exception of 

 Great Britain) and South Africa, and it has been found also in the 

 United States and Canada. According to official statistics, 48,797 

 chickens, 23,573 geese, and 9488 ducks died from fowl cholera in 

 Germany in 1903. These figures comprise only those cases in which 

 an exact diagnosis was made, and indicate, of course, only a part of 

 the actual loss. 



Pathologic Lesions. Birds which have died from fowl cholera show 

 numerous hemorrhages into the mucous and serous membranes. 

 Among the serous membranes the epicardium, or external lining 

 membrane of the heart, shows particularly numerous hemorrhagic 

 spots. This change is most marked in geese and ducks, less in 

 chickens. A serous or fibrinous pericarditis, a hemorrhagic enteritis 



