326 BACILLI PATHOGENIC IN ANIMALS. 



vessel ; on potatoes it forms a reddish chamois-coloured 

 flat layer, which extends very quickly. Cultivations 

 introduced into the lungs of rah bits through the wall of 

 the chest, or by injection into the trachea, or hy inhalation 

 into the lungs, set up a violent pneumonia, which presents 

 exactly the same appearance as the vagus pneumonia, 

 in which the bacilli were originally found. 



Bacillus diphtheria columbarum (Loeffler). 



Bacilli of JQ f ow i s an( j pigeons we not uncommonly find epi- 



diphtheria. demies of a disease resembling human diphtheria, which 

 begins with hyperaemia of isolated spots of the mucous 

 membrane ; at a later period these spots become covered 



Symptoms of with a thick light yellow deposit. In the case of pigeons 

 sease. ^ Q base of the tongue, the mucous membrane of the throat, 

 and the angle of the mouth, are more especially attacked ; 

 in fowls the usual seats are the tongue, the palate, the 

 nasal cavities, the conjunctivas, and the entrance of the 

 larynx. The temperature of the affected animals is 

 somewhat elevated. The disease runs its course as a 

 rule within two or three weeks, and may at times 

 last for some months with repeated exacerbations ; 80 

 per cent, of the fowls affected die ; of the pigeons, how- 

 ever, a smaller proportion. Young animals, and those 

 belonging to pure breeds, are more especially predisposed 

 to the disease. 



Microscopical Loeffler* was able to isolate, from the exudation of a 

 pigeon which had died with these symptoms, bacilli 

 which were only slightly longer and somewhat narrower 

 than the bacilli of rabbit septicaemia, and were rounded 

 at the ends, and usually occurred in groups. In sections 

 of the lungs, and more especially of the liver, the rods 

 were found in the interior of the blood vessels, forming 



Cultivations, masses similar to those of the typhoid bacilli. On 

 nutrient gelatine they form at the deeper parts whitish 

 spheres, on the surface whitish layers ; under a low 

 power the colonies present a yellowish-brown appear- 

 ance. On blood serum they form a greyish-white 



* Mitth. a, d. Kaiserl. Ges. Amt., vol. ii. 



