238 PATHOGENIC BACTERIA. 



by Paquin. For a long period, donkeys were injected 

 with increasing doses of tuberculin, in order that an 

 antitoxin antituberculin might be generated in their 

 blood. Experiments upon guinea-pigs showed that the 

 serum was powerless to immunize against the tubercle 

 bacillus, or to cure established tuberculosis. The serum, 

 however, had the power of annulling the effects of tuber- 

 culin upon tuberculous animals. While a failure experi- 

 mentally, certain clinicians claim that in practice it ex- 

 erts a beneficial action upon patients. Indeed, presuming 

 that an antituberculin is formed, it is but natural that it 

 should do good in all cases in which it is probable that 

 the patient is poisoned by tuberculin or a similar product. 



Rather nearer the desideratum are the experiments of 

 DeSchweinitz, 1 who injected cows and horses with increas- 

 ing quantities of bouillon cultures of a greatly attenuated 

 tubercle bacillus, and subsequently found that the serum 

 possessed the property of rendering guinea-pigs immune 

 to the virulent bacilli. 



The Bacillus of Fowl-tuberculosis ( Tuberculosis gal- 

 linarum}. The cases of tuberculosis which occasionally 

 occur spontaneously in chickens, parrots, ducks, and other 

 birds were originally attributed to the Bacillus tuberculo- 

 sis hominis, but the recent works of Rivolta, Mafucci, 

 Cadio, Gilbert, Roget, and others have shown that, while 

 very similar in many respects to the Bacillus tuberculosis, 

 the organism found in the disease of birds has distinct 

 peculiarities which stamp it a different variety, but not a 

 separate species. Cadio, Gilbert, and Roger succeeded in 

 infecting fowls by feeding them upon food containing tu- 

 bercle bacilli, and keeping them in cages in which dust 

 containing tubercle bacilli was placed. The infection 

 was aided by lowering the temperature with antipyrin 

 and lessening vitality by starvation. Morphologically, 

 the organisms are similar, the bacillus of fowl-tuber- 

 culosis being a little longer and more slender than its 

 ally. 



1 Centralbl.f. Bakt. und Parasitenk., Sept. 15, 1897, Bd. xxii., Nos. 8 and 9. 



