TUBERCULOSIS OF PARROTS — ITS RELATION TO HUMAN TUBERCULOSIS. 559 



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birds — the Psittaceae (the parrot tribe), — very readily contract human 

 tuberculosis. Observation tends to support this view, and experiment 

 has established it beyond question. 



The merit of having first drawn attention to the frequency of 

 tuberculosis in parrots, and of having shown that the disease especially 

 affects the skin, mucous membranes, subcutaneous and submucous 

 connective tissues, the articulations and bones, is due to Frohner and 

 his assistant Eberlein. Of 700 parrots brought for examination to the 

 Berlin school 170 were tuberculous, i. e. a proportion of 25 per cent. 

 Eberlein gave a summary of fifty-six of these cases, according to which 

 the principal localisations were as follows : 



Eye and periocular region .... 14 

 Commissure of the beak . . . . n 



Tongue .... 

 Larynx .... 

 Bones and articulations . 

 In Eberlein's observations tuberculosis affected the skin and its 

 appendages in twenty-nine cases, /. e. a proportion of 50 per cent. 



The cases which we have recorded number twenty-seven, and may 

 be divided as follows : 



Tuberculosis of the skin 

 Tuberculosis of the mucous mem- 

 brane ..... 

 Simultaneous tuberculosis of the 

 skin and mucous membrane . 

 On more closely studying the localisation of these lesions we see 

 that they most frequently occur about the head, especially the sides of 

 the face, the periorbital region, and the commissures of the beak. 

 Eberlein considers that the left side is more frequently attacked than 

 the right, without, however, being able to give any reason for this 

 predominance. Finally, it is not uncommon to find several massed or 

 distributed cutaneous centres in the same animal. 



Studied according to their localisation an analysis of the lesions in 

 our twenty-seven cases proves very similar to that of Eberlein : 

 Cheeks, periorbital region, and eye . .12 cases 



15 cases, t. e. 55 per cent. 

 6 cases, i. e. 22 per cent. 

 6 cases, i. e. 22 per cent. 



Commissures of the beak . 

 Tongue ..... 



Palate 



Upper limbs and wings 



Claws ..... 



Cervical, dorsal, and caudal regions 



