574 CLINICAL VETERINARY MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 



This view of the question has important practical consequences. 

 In parrots, for instance, the bacilH acquire extraordinary virulence for 

 certain mammals, as shown by our inoculation of guinfea-pigs ; very 

 rarely is human tuberculosis so active in these little rodents. Now 

 bacilli exist in large numbers in the cutaneous growths, the buccal 

 secretions, the nasal discharge, and sometimes in the excrement ; they 

 may readily be disseminated, and are much more dangerous when 

 mixed with particles of organic matter. Parrots inoculated by 

 man, therefore, become in turn permanent centres of tuberculous 

 infection. 



