756 



Combined Paralysis of the Tail and of the Sphincter. 



The raw iinhusked rice Avas Avithout effect, but decorticated rice 

 warmed to 125° set up the disease just as is the case with rye. 



From this fact Eykmann concludes that the husk of the rice and rye 

 contains some protective material which paralyzes the toxic power of 

 the decorticated grains in some way or other. Maurer and Treutlein 

 think that this kind of polyneuritis is due entirely to a chronic poisoning 

 with oxalic acid, large quantities of this acid being produced during 

 the fermentation of the rice in the crop, and this cannot be neutral- 

 ized by the husk, owing to tlie absence of calcium salts. In order to 

 produce the disease, the feeding must be continued for several weeks. 

 For this reason the condition described by Kellermann, which was pro- 

 duced by a single meal of rice was certainly not polyneuritis. 



yO^ 



]<Mg. 115. Cross section of the spinal cord of a fowl affected with polyneuritis. 

 (a) Dura mater showing a nerve root (b) passing through it, wdiich with tlie sur- 

 rounding connective tissue appears to be markedly intiltrated with cells, (c) Per- 

 sisting nerve fibers, some cut transversely and some obliquely. (d) Pia mater 

 infiltrated with cells aiul from which groups of cells penetrate the peripheral layers of 

 the cord, (e) Focal proliferation of groups of cells. 



Eykmann is inclined to think that the disease produced in fowls 

 by Balardini by feeding them on mouldly maize, the symptoms of 

 which were wasting and paresis, was of a similar nature. 



Marek observed polyneuritis in cocks, the cause of which was not 

 known, but which was not connected with any particular article of diet. 

 In contradistinction to what was found by Eykmann, polyneuritis was 

 pronounced {fi^. 114 and 115), the principal lesion being a chronic 

 interstitial neuritis. 



