ii6 THE GROUSE DISEASE chap. 



infection is carried from animal to animal by air, or 

 whether, as we mentioned in a former chapter as very 

 probable, infection is produced by ingestion — the 

 animals picking up food from soil tainted with the 

 evacuations of a diseased fowl. Mr. W. Cook, of 

 Orpington, kindly placed at my disposal a plot of 

 ground, not situated at or near his poultry-farm. This 

 plot was divided by wire netting into two adjacent 

 sections ; the wire netting separating these was made 

 double, and a space or passage of about i8 inches 

 was left free between them. Into each section were 

 placed ten healthy fowls, which we will call lot A and 

 lot B respectively. All fowls of lot A were then 

 inoculated with broth sub-culture of the bacillus of 

 fowl enteritis, the fowls of lot B remaining untouched. 

 All of lot A were distinctly ill on the fifth day ; they 

 were quiet and had diarrhoea between the fifth and 

 eighth day ; seven died, three survived.^ While the 

 disease was rife amongst lot A, one fowl escaped from 

 lot B and found its entrance amongst lot A.- After a 

 few days sojourning amongst them it became also ill 

 and died of the fowl enteritis ; also a strange fowl not 

 belonging to either of the two lots got access to lot A : 



^ After a fortnight, when they seemed quite well again, they were 

 re-inoculated, but proved refractory. 



2 The two plots of ground had a covering of wire netting, but this 

 was not perfect. 



