ORUilN OF TUBERCULOSIS IN PARROTS. 567 



cough; that several were unquestionably tuberculous was proved by 

 bacteriological examination of their sputa. 



Case I, described in the foregoing pages, is in this respect absolutely 

 conclusive. The parrot had lived in the same house for eight years, 

 and had always enjoyed good health ; in April, 1894, its owner began 

 to cough ; in December the bird showed tuberculous patches on the 

 sides of the face. At this time microscopic examination revealed the 

 presence of tubercle bacilli in the cutaneous growth on the head of the 

 parrot, and in the expectorations of its owner. The owner told us 

 that he was in the habit of fondling the bird ; that he often kissed it 

 on the head and sides of the face ; and that he made it take from his 

 mouth food which he himself had masticated. He added that this 

 parrot was the only animal in his rooms ; that it had never come in 

 contact, even for a short time, with other birds, and that it lived on 

 seeds, coffee and milk, boiled milk, and, finally, food which he himself 

 had chewed. Is not this case as complete and as instructive as a 

 laboratory experiment ? How is it possible to deny that this bird, 

 which showed cutaneous tuberculosis four months after its owner had 

 developed the first symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis, from which 

 he died a year later, had been infected by the owner himself.-' 



In Case 2 the human origin of the disease is scarcely less clear. A 

 man who had suffered with pulmonary tuberculosis from 1887, and 

 who died of the disease in January, 1895, bought in 1890 a very fine 

 parrot, which showed no cutaneous lesions. At the commencement of 

 1894 the bird, which its owner was in the habit of fondling, and which 

 ate from his mouth, developed a greyish nodule on the lower eyelid of 

 the left eye; the nodule gradually increased in size, and ended by m- 

 vading the entire e}'elid. 



In Case 16 the disease may have been caused in the same way. 

 The parrot belonged to a tuberculous woman, who was in the habit of 

 feeding it from her mouth. Tuberculosis developed simultaneously on 

 the buccal mucous membrane and on the skin. 



Cases 3, 17, and 21 refer to birds which belonged to tuberculous 

 persons ; and the parrot in Case 4 had often been in contact with a 

 woman who afterwards died of pulmonary tuberculosis. 



We were scarcely surprised that in the other cases our inquiries 

 threw no light on the question of human infection. Parrots may 

 contaminate one another, and may also contract tuberculosis from the 

 dust existing in rooms, — that is to say, from bacilli introduced from out 

 of doors. 



Infection may occur by three different paths. Sometimes the bacilli 

 penetrate by the respiratory tract. Thus pulmonary tuberculosis. 



