Correspo?idence, Notes, etc. 321



I did uottouch on, and also by quoting the opinions of others, which I

did not ask for.


Putting aside the question of diphtheria, which, as I have said, I did

not touch upon in my previous letter, and which is another story% there are

these two diseases, consumption and typhoid, which, in his lecture

Dr. Mylan states that birds could easily contract. And this position he

adheres to and endeavours to substantiate.


First, with regard to consumption. It is no news to me, or to

anyone who takes an intelligent interest in bird diseases, that all but the

more recent observers speak of avian tuberculosis as a common disease.

Within the last year or two, however, those bacteriologists who have made

a special study of the subject have asserted that the bacilli of the so-called

tuberculosis avium are in all cases which have come under their notice

simply the bacilli of septicaemia, and have supported their opinion with

proofs which appear to be conclusive. The circumstances under which

Dr. Mylan’s own birds died are just those under which our more modern

observers almost invariably find septicaemia, and there is therefore a very

strong presumption that what he calls “ avian tuberculosis ” is merely what

is more correctly described as septicaemia.


With regard to typhoid fever, Dr. Mylan admits that he has had no

personal experience of it in birds, but adds the. singular remark that “ Drs.

■Greene and Butler and Wallace mention this disease in their works.” I

cannot help pointing out that Dr. Greene has never claimed to be a bacteri¬

ologist, for the simple reason that his medical studies were completed

before bacteriology was heard of. That Dr. Butler is a doctor of philosophy,

not of medicine. And that Wallace (assuming that R. R. Wallace is intended)

was merely a good example of the old school of Canary fanciers, and

absolutely without scientific knowledge. It is as much as if I were to quote

Blackstone, a friend of mine who is a well-known doctor of music, and the

late Mr. Joseph Abrahams, in support of an argument on the construction

of a modern statute.


And surely the readers of th & Avicultural Magazine do not, at this

time of day', require convincing ‘‘that certain very infectious forms of

■disease exist among birds.” Those aviculturists who have not already

learnt that, must either be absolute novices, or incapable of learning

anything. The question is, what are these forms of disease ?


Horatio R. Fieemer.



CONSUMPTION, &c., IN BIRDS.


Sir,—M r. J. G. Mylan states that he has found Tuberculosis in

Gouldians and Canaries, and that their livers and spleens were swarming

with Tubercle bacilli. He tells me in a private letter that he has known

several fatal cases of Phthisis in human subjects contracted from Canaries.



