430 APPLICATION OF METHODS OF BACTERIOLOGY 



not show the central necrotic area that characterize the 

 mammalian tubercle; the disease is transmissible from the 

 hen to the embryo chick; the only susceptible mammal is 

 the rabbit; the guinea-pig and dog are naturally immune; 

 it has the same micro-chemical staining-reactions as mam- 

 malian bacillus tuberculosis; it has never been certainly 

 detected in human tuberculosis. 



Some are inclined to regard this organism as but a variety 

 of genuine bacillus tuberculosis, and it is not unreasonable 

 to believe that the sojourn of that organism in the body of 

 a refractory animal, whose normal temperature is so high as 

 that of the fowl, when not fatal to the organism, might 

 result in striking modifications of certain of its biological 

 functions. In fact, Nocard 1 has shown that if the genuine 

 bacillus tuberculosis from man be left in the peritoneal cavity 

 of chickens (by the collodion-sac method of Metchnikoff, 

 Roux, and Sallembini, which see) for from five to eight 

 months, they will, by the end of this time, have become so 

 modified in their biological peculiarities as to simulate very 

 closely the bacillus of fowl tuberculosis. 



Moore 2 reports studies on bacterium tuberculosis avium 

 in an epidemic occurring in California. He obtained pure 

 cultures by inoculating glycerin-agar or blood-serum tubes 

 directly from tuberculous livers and spleens. In the origi- 

 nal cultures little difficulty was experienced in cultivating 

 the organism on glycerin-agar, fresh dog-serum, Dorset's 

 egg-medium, potato, and glycerin-bouillon. The general 

 cultural peculiarities observed agreed with those described 

 by Maffucci, Nocard, Straus and Gamaleia, and others. 

 He states that the avian tubercle bacteria as found in the 



1 Annales de 1'Institut Pasteur, 1898, p. 561. 



2 Journal of Medical Research, 1904, vol. vi. 



