BY GEORGE BYRON MORSE 63 



heat or its lack, moisture or its lack, play a prominent role in the causation 

 of this form of diarrhea. Foreign body diarrheas must also be recognized. 

 Under this head I would place those diarrheal conditions arising from over- 

 feeding, too frequent feeding or the feeding of wrong material, all of which 

 might be placed under the general title of improper feeding. Parasitic 

 diarrheas, using the term "parasitic" in its widest sense, offer the greatest 

 field for research on the line we are now considering, especially to the 

 pathologist. The macroparasites deserve attention whether they be 

 supposedly harmless worms acting injuriously only by the greatness of 

 their numbers or as I am inclined to think we shall come to believe, through 

 their toxins, or the hooked forms which at once act as irritants and possibly 

 frequently as inoculating needles for intestinal bacteria that are only wait- 

 ing to enter through the abraded mucous membrane. Then there are the 

 microparasites, microorganisms, which divide into two general classes: 

 protozoa which are the lowest animal forms, and microscopic vegetable 

 forms such as bacteria and molds. 



Among the protozoa as agents of intestinal disturbances, the coccidia 

 and the flagellates are to be studied. Whereas there is but one coccidium, 

 Coccidium tenellum, it is very likely that we shall have to take account of 

 different flagellates, the Cercomonas and the Trichomonas, as causing 

 diarrheas and other forms of intestinal disturbance not only in chicks but 

 in adult poultry as well. 



In this connection it must be remembered that intestinal disturbances 

 do not invariably manifest themselves by diarrhea. In the Bureau of 

 Animal Industry Circular No. 128, which presents in a preliminary way, 

 the subject of coccidiosis in poultry, the writer calls attention to the fact 

 that he believes that many cases of limberneck and leg weakness are 

 caused by the coccidium. Maggots have long had the unenviable reputa- 

 tion of causing limberneck in chickens but, without doubt, it is not the 

 maggots per se that cause that nervous phenomenon. The poisons from 

 the decaying meat containing the maggots are producing their toxic effects 

 upon the bird. Hence it is not too much to expect that the toxins developed 

 in the intestinal tract by bacteria and by digestive changes in the food, gain 

 entrance into the body of the bird through abrasions caused by any intes- 

 tinal parasites and so produce limberneck. As a therapeutic test of the 

 correctness of this diagnosis try the administration of a teaspoonful of 

 castor oil containing 10 to 15 drops of turpentine, repeated every two or 

 three days, or purgative doses of Epsom salt. We have already learned in 

 human medicine that intestinal toxemia may be the cause of many cases of 

 arthritis, often called rheumatism, and one of the commonest methods of 



