AVIAN TUBERCULOSIS. — HISTORICAL, 523 



human tuberculosis to fowls beyond question. Nevertheless some 

 contradictory facts arose from time to time. It was recalled that 

 Villemin had not been able to transmit tuberculosis to a cock and a 

 wood-pigeon; M. H. Martin alwa5's failed in attempting to inoculate 

 fowls by intra-peritoneal injection with tuberculous material derived 

 directly from man, or with material which had been passed through 

 the guinea-pig. But the idea of the unicity of avian and human 

 tuberculosis had already struck deep, and M. Martin carefully guarded 

 against the conclusion that fowls are proof against human tuber- 

 culosis ; he only thought his failures due to his having made intra- 

 peritoneal inoculations, or having introduced too small a number of 

 bacilli. 



Rebutting facts soon began to accumulate. MM. Straus and 

 Wurtz fed six hens and a cock for six to twelve months with phthisical 

 sputum. The animals resisted, and post-uiortcin examination showed 

 their organs to be perfectly healthy. 



Riffi and Gotti also declared that the tuberculosis of mammals did 

 not affect the Gallinaceae. Rivolta laid stress on the considerable 

 differences between avian and human tuberculosis ; he found that 

 tuberculous products from the fowl did not produce general infection 

 in the guinea-pig, the lesions being confined to an abscess at the point 

 of inoculation. The same results occurred in the rabbit, though in 

 this animal a few tubercles developed in the lungs. 



The study of tuberculosis in the Gallinaceae was again taken up by 

 Maffucci. This author recognised that avian virus was transmissible 

 to fowls ; that in the rabbit it behaved as Rivolta had stated ; and that 

 in the guinea-pig its action varied according to the point of injection. 

 The animal usually resisted inoculation into the subcutaneous con- 

 nective tissue though it showed a local lesion ; in other cases it died at 

 the end of some months in an extremely emaciated condition, and on 

 post-mortem examination the liver and spleen were found atrophied ; no 

 tubercles were seen, and microscopical examination and cultures 

 revealed no bacilli. After intra-peritoneal inoculation the animals 

 died within a period varying between fourteen days and three months ; if 

 development had been rapid the organs were infiltrated with embryonic 

 cells and filled with bacilli ; in more prolonged cases atrophy of the 

 liver and spleen were alone found. Inoculation into the lung pro- 

 duced interstitial inflammation; the bacilh remained localised, and did 

 not invade abdominal viscera ; after intra-venous inoculation guinea- 

 pigs died in fifteen, twenty, or twenty-five days, and on microscopic 

 examination the liver appeared infiltrated with embryonic cells con- 

 taining numerous bacilli. Finally Maffucci showed that mammalian 



