VIBRIO METCHNIKOVI. 375 



afflicted with diarrhoea, but do not have any elevation 

 of temperature. A hypersemia of the entire gastro- 

 intestinal tract is seen at autopsy. The other internal 

 organs do not, as a rule, present anything abnormal to 

 the naked eye. The intestinal canal contains yellowish 

 fluid with which blood may be mixed. In adult 

 chickens the spirilla are not found in the blood, but in 

 young ones they are usually present in small numbers. 

 By subcutaneous inoculation, pigeons succumb to the 

 pathogenic activities of this organism in from eight to 

 twelve hours. At autopsy pretty much the same con- 

 dition is seen as was described for chickens, except that 

 large numbers of the spirilla are usually present in 

 the blood. Guinea-pigs usually die in from twenty 

 to twenty-four hours after subcutaneous inoculation. 

 At autopsy an extensive oedema of the subcutaneous 

 tissues about the seat of the inoculation is seen, and 

 there is usually a necrotic condition of the tissues in 

 the vicinity of the point of puncture. As the blood 

 and internal organs contain the vibrios in large num- 

 bers, the infection in these animals takes, therefore, the 

 form of acute, general septicaemia. 



Gastro-enteritis may be produced in both chickens 

 and guinea-pigs by feeding them with food in which 

 cultures of this organism have been mixed. 



NOTE. More recently, particularly since the late 

 epidemic in Hamburg, quite a number of curved or 

 spiral organisms, somewhat like the cholera spirillum, 

 have been discovered. For the descriptions of these 

 the reader is referred to the current bacteriological 

 literature. 



