PART IV. 



EXPERIMENTAL AND COMPARATIVE 

 PATHOLOGY. 



L— A CONTRIBUTION TO THE STUDY OF AVIAN 

 TUBERCULOSIS. 



(In collaboration with MM . Gilbert and Roger, Fello^us of the Paris Faculty of Medicine, 



Doctors of Medicine.) 



I.— HISTORICAL. 



Numerous memoirs published during the last thirty years have 

 shown that tuberculosis is common in birds. Leisering, Larcher, 

 Paulicki, Ziirn, and certain others have published very interesting cases, 

 but it may fairly be asked whether all were cases of true tuberculosis 

 due to the microbe which Koch discovered in man. This doubt, how- 

 ever, seems to have been removed since Koch, Ribbert, Babes, Cornil, 

 and Megnin found in tuberculous material obtained from fowls a bacillus 

 showing the same staining properties as that found in mammals. 



MM. Nocard and Roux cultivated this bacillus, and their cultures, 

 submitted to many observers, served for a large number of experi- 

 ments. The identity of the two forms of tuberculosis was freely 

 admitted, — indeed, could scarcely be doubted when innumerable 

 experiments showed that the rabbit could be inoculated with avian 

 tuberculosis, and when several observations appeared to establish the 

 transmissibility of human tuberculosis to birds. 



In 1873 Bollinger reported that eight pigeons had been contami- 

 nated by eating the expectorations of phthisical patients ; in 1885 he 

 also published several similar cases. Koch, Nocard, Mollereau, 

 Chelchowsky, de Lemalleree, Durieux, and Cagny all published obser- 

 vations, or experiments, which seemed to place the conveyance of 



