264 MANUAL OF POISONOUS PLANTS 



into the lungs. But for the Aspergillus fumigatus the lungs act as a veritable propagating 

 house, furnishing a moist, nutrient soil upon which to grow and a congenial, warm, moist 

 atmosphere with a sufficient amount of oxygen for its demand to come to complete maturity 

 and for fructification to take place. When the fungous growth is localized in the bronchial 

 mucous membrane, the condition is known as bronchomycosis. It may be that the tissues 

 are able to forestall entrance into their substance and finally the fungi die and recovery 

 takes place. In birds the growth may extend to the air sacs; this condition is then called 

 cytomycosis. Cases of cytomycosis are very rare; and when it does occur, emaciation of 

 the birds is the predominating symptom. When the lung tissue itself is the seat of invasion, 

 the term pneumonomycosis is applied. Invasion of the lung tissue by the mycelium is the 

 occasion for an intense inflammatory disturbance with positive chemotaxis. However, this 

 tissue reaction seems to offer the most trifling barrier to the parasitic encroachment in such 

 weakly subjects as birds. Generali states that delicate breeds of pigeons are noticeably 

 susceptible to this disease. 



In regard to the symptoms in birds, he says: 



The birds become listless, mope, and do not follow the rest of the flock. When made 

 to run they soon become exhausted and fall and have great difficulty in breathing. Even 

 when disturbed they appear very weak and gasp for breath, extending their heads and 

 making movements as if choking. There is a great thirst, but a diminution or complete 

 loss of appetite. The birds become rapidly emaciated, the wings are pendant, the eyelids 

 droop, comb and wattles become quite pale, and a general dejected appearance follows. 

 Usually there is an intense diarrhea which weakens the bird very much. In the experimental 

 disease the diarrhoea is an accompaniment just as in that of a spontaneous development, 

 The plumage is said to appear ruffled, and the respirations become croupy, even when the 

 disease has not advanced very far; later they are more rapid and a rattling noise can be 

 heard. In the final stages suffocation is threatened. 



When the air sacs are affected very few symptoms manifest themselves, though emacia- 

 tion is marked. As in any similar condition of the lungs, fever is high, and symptoms 

 that would be manifested in pneumonia of fowls would, of course, show here. There is 

 more or less catarrh of the trachea and bronchi, and if these alone were diseased there 

 would probably be nothing to attract notice other than symptoms of bronchitis. Bleeding 

 from the nostrils has been observed in man and in animals, and it may be that this would 

 also occasionally be seen in birds. If the air spaces in the bones become affected, lameness 

 with swelling of the joints may result. The duration of the disease is quite variable and 

 death may take place in from one to eight weeks from asphyxia or marasmus. Duration 

 depends a great deal upon the portion of the respiratory apparatus that is affected; if the 

 aspergillar nodules were localized in the mouth, as it is sometimes in pigeons, or in the 

 bones or air sacs, the duration of the disease would, of course, be much longer than if in 

 the bronchi or lung substance. 



The pathological lesions are as follows: 

 The actinomycotic masses are noteworthy. The fungus may frequently be- 

 come localized in kidneys, and muscles of heart. 



The microscopic examination of these organs disclosed a picture simulating the gross 

 appearance of an advanced case of pulmonary tuberculosis, with the exception that the 

 bronchial tubes were almost completely plugged with a greenish velvety membranous 

 lining. 



In the bronchial divisions not wholly occluded by the croupous exudate are seen the 

 characteristic aspergillar fruitheads in various stages of development, from that of a 

 slight bulging end of the hypha to those giving off their spores. Included within this 

 alveolar exudate are quite a few leucocytes and red blood cells, but their presence is by 

 no means constant. The bronchial mucosa is often eroded and the lining epithelium re- 

 placed by a fibrinous coagula or by a membranous material composed of matted mycelial 

 threads from which hyphae extend into the air space, forming spore-bearing fruitheads, 

 owing to the presence of oxygen. 



In animals in which the disease was experimentally induced by the injection of the 

 spores into the blood vessels or into the lung substance, miliary lesions resembling tubercu- 

 lar formations were quite noticeable in the lung tissues, and in these an occasional giant 

 cell was discovered. In the lungs of a chicken which was inoculated directly into the 

 lung substance, an acute miliary pseudo-tuberculosis was produced, accompanied by intense 

 hemorrhages into the interstitial tissues, as was also the case in intravenous inoculations. 

 In these tubercular nodules penetrating filaments could be made out, but the spores could 



