374 BA CTERIOLOG Y. 



in their biological peculiarities as to simulate very 

 closely the bacillus of fowl tuberculosis. 



Moore 1 reports studies on bacterium tuberculosis 

 avium iu an epidemic occurring in California. He ob- 

 tained pure cultures by inoculating glycerin-agar or blood- 

 serum tubes directly from tuberculous livers and spleens. 

 In the original cultures little difficulty was experienced 

 in cultivating the organism on glyeerine-agar, fresh dog- 

 serum, Dorset's egg-medium, potato, and glycerine- 

 bouillon. The general cultural peculiarities observed 

 agreed with those described by Maffucci, Nocard, Straus 

 and Gamaleia, and others. He states that the tubercle 

 bacteria resemble quite closely those of the bovine and 

 human varieties in their size and general morphology 

 as they are found in the tissues of the fowl. The aver- 

 age length of a large number of measurements was 2.7 

 microns. Moore also tested the pathogenesis of the 

 freshly isolated avian tubercle bacteria on fowls, rabbits, 

 guinea-pigs, and pigeons. The results of these inocu- 

 lations, however, were unsatisfactory, as were also feed- 

 ing experiments of healthy fowls with human tubercu- 

 lous sputum rich in bacteria. 



VARIETIES OF B. TUBERCULOSIS. Theobald Smith 2 

 has called attention to certain very conspicuous differences 

 that maybe observed between the bacilli obtained from hu- 

 man and those from bovine tuberculosis ; and in a series of 

 inoculation experiments Ravenel has shown that for a large 

 number of species tubercle bacilli of bovine origin were 

 constantly more virulent than those from human sources. 



Anatomical lesions very suggestive of, though not 



1 Moore: Journal of Medical Eesearch, 1904, vol. vi. 



2 Smith : Transactions of the Association of American Physicians, 

 1896, vol. xi. p. 75. 



