8o



Correspondence, Notes, etc.



I note that Mr. Gill asks me some questions. He will find them

answered in some articles I sent to the Editor of Bird Notes last August,

and which will appear in November, December, and January. (The Novem¬

ber issue will have been published before this letter is in print). It is true

that these papers are very sketchy and incomplete, but they were only

designed to help my layman friends ; still they are at Mr. Gill’s service, and

they may perhaps help him to understand what I have already written,

while at the same time giving him a little information on the subject of

comparative immunities. One of the questions however I may answer

now, although I should not have thought it necessary to explain to him

that when he talks of the enteritis produced by cold water, frosted food,

bathing, etc. he is talking in the language of long ago, when we supposed

such causes acted directly, whereas we now know that the effect of cold is

merely to lower the resistance of the individual against the attacks of a

micro-organism which would otherwise have left him unscathed.


There are man}' points in Mr. Gill’s letter which very temptingly

invite attack, but for the present I will resist the temptation. There is

however on page 51 a minor error that perhaps he would like me to correct.

Septic enteritis is not the same thing as “ enteric.” This term is usually

employed to designate enteric fever, or as we used to term it—typhoid

fever, and septic enteritis is, as the French say, quite another pair of

sleeves.


In conclusion, I must say that up to now I have been much exercised

in my mind to understand why Mr. Gill should have undertaken the task

of attempting to criticise me. But I now wonder no longer, for I have just

referred to his report of necropsies in the October number of the Avicultnral

Magazine. I see there that without bacteriological investigation he is able

to definitely say in two cases of acute inflammation of the liver that the

disease was not infectious; also that a case of enteritis was not of the

contagious (sic) form. Seeing that neither of my pathologist friends, nor

myself, are able to perform this miracle I must, I suppose, recognize that I

have met my master.


W. Geo. Cresweee.



[We do not for one moment doubt that Dr. Creswell is perfectly

right when he tells us that yolk-of-egg is infected by septic bacilli more

readily than most substances, and we fully appreciate the value of his

discoveries, but we know very well that if captive birds, which are fed to a

large extent upon this substance, are kept properly clean, its ill effects will

not be apparent, and the birds will live for years in perfect health.


We are quite sure that very few aviculturists will discard egg-food

when they have proved, by years of experience, that it is the most useful

ingredient in insectivorous food mixtures. We are well aware that Dr.

Creswell regards mere experience as of next to no value, but we are



