240 A MANUAL OF BACTERIOLOGY 



pheasants also suffer from diphtheria, for he found 

 the characteristic diphtheritic membranes in these 

 birds; and he has also seen fowls and pigeons 

 which had also been inoculated with diphtheritic 

 membrane from a child's throat attacked with a 

 disease which in all respects resembled what Turner 

 regards as natural fowl-diphtheria. Similar accounts 

 have been received from foreign bacteriologists, 1 

 so that the identity and transmissibility of the dis- 

 ease from fowls to men seems very probable. 



It may be stated, en passant, that Power 2 traced 

 the outbreaks of diphtheria in 1886 at York and 

 Camberley to the infectiousness of the milk- 

 supplies ; and there is no doubt that milk is a 

 medium in which other diseases besides diphtheria 

 may be spread over a wide area. 



For some years, there has been a serious increase 

 of diphtheria in this country, which Dr. Thome 3 

 attributes to the increasing aggregation of children 

 in elementary schools ; and Dr. Seaton, 4 to the pre- 

 sent systems of water-supply and sewerage. 



B. diphtherias is possessed of great tenacity of 

 life. If it is dried and kept at 33 C. it is still 

 alive after three months ; but at 45 C., this microbe 

 is killed in four days. ' If a fragment of the false 

 membrane containing bacilli be removed, wrapped 

 in sterilised paper, or linen, and be carefully pro- 

 tected from the action of light, cultivations may be 



1 British Medical Journal, 1884; Journal d* Hygiene, 1884. 



2 Report to Local Government Board, 1886, p. 311. 



3 Diphtheria : its Natural History and Prevention (1891). 



4 Report of International Congress of Hygiene, 1891. 



