292 Correspondence , Notes, etc.


was no trace of any game bird, which bears out Mr. Buxton's contention

that these birds do much more good than harm. I venture to say that if

the fourteen Rats whose remains were found had grown up they would

have been more destructive to young Pheasants than any Barn Owl could

have been.


Keswich, Norwich. J. H. Gurney.


CONSUMPTION AND TYPHOID IN BIRDS.


Sir,—M r. Horatio R. Fillmer, in your last issue of the Magazine,

•doubts, on the authority of some medical men, the possibility of birds

•contracting such diseases as Consumption and Typhoid; and, therefore,

requests me to give him the reasons for my having made the statement in

the extempore address which I gave the members of the Sheffield Cage-

Bird Society in February last, that, birds “could easily contract such

diseases as Typhoid, Consumption and Diphtheria.”


Now, in the first place, let me assure your correspondent that I do

not claim to be “an authority” on the diseases of birds, but that he is quite

welcome to get the result of my experience as a humble member of the

Medical profession aucLa lover of foreign birds.


Some time back, the death-rate amongst my birds being rather high,

I decided to place the fresh arrivals in quarantine and watch them. As the

result of my vigilance I soon discovered that some of the new arrivals were

in bad health, and, on their dying, I made a post-mortem and bacterio¬

logical examination, and found the cause of death in two Gouldian Finches

to be due to “Avian Tuberculosis,” and in two Budgerigars and one Parson

Finch to “Diphtheria Avium.” Since that period, and in the same way, I

found out that two Canaries died from Avian Tuberculosis and another

Budgerigar from Diphtheria. In the consumptive cases the livers and

spleens (not the lungs) were found to be swarming with the bacilli of

Tuberculosis Avium ; and, in the diphtheria cases, the false membranes in

the throats of the birds distinctly showed the modified organisms known as

“Bacillus Diphtheria Columbarum.”


According to Professor K. Noeard of the Alfort Veterinary College

(one of the best authorities on the subject) “ Tuberculosis is a common

disease among birds: the bacilli are a little longer than those met with in

Tuberculosis Mammalia, otherwise they have the same characteristics,

react in the same way to the same stains, and flourish on the same culture

media, but they are more vigorous and grow more quickly and abundantly.”

And Hewlett (another authority) points out, that, the bacilli in the form of

Tuberculosis are exceedingly numerous in the lesions. Dr. Charles Porter

(Lecturer in Bacteriology, University College, Sheffield) assures me that

Pigeons are not the only birds that suffer from Diphtheria Avium, but that

Parrots and Parrakeets are very susceptible to it; and, that, Chicken

Cholera (different altogether from Human Asiatic Cholera) creates great

ravages among both large and small birds.



