ABSTRACTS. "-^^7 



FREQUENCY OF OCCURRENCE OF TUMORS IN THE 

 DOMESTIC FOWL.* 



The purpose of the present paper is to record the data on the 

 frequency of occurrence of tumors in the domestic fowl whicn 

 have been collected during eight years' routine autopsy work A 

 the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station. 



The chief points brought out by an analysis of these data are 

 as follows : 



(i) Of the 880 birds autopsied 79, or 8.96 per cent, had 

 tumors. That is, there were 90 cases of tumors per 1,000 birds. 



(2) There was no significant difference in frequency of oc- 

 currence of tumors between birds which died from natural 

 causes and apparently normal birds which were killed. 



(3) There is a significant positive correlation between age 

 and the occurrence of tumors. Only 7.37 per cent of the birds 

 under 2 1-4 years had tumors, while neoplasms were present 

 in 19.17 per cent of those that were over that age. 



(4) In birds with tum>ors which died from natural causes, 

 the tumors were directly or indirectly the probable cause of 

 death in from one-third to one-half the cases. 



(5) There was a decided tendency for the association of 

 hypertrophied (apparently due to cell infiltration) liver, spleen, 

 or kidney with the presence of tumors in other organs. 



(6) Death often resulted from internal hemorrhage fro:ii 

 the tumor, the underlying tissue, or the hypertrophied liver or 

 spleen. 



(7) The tumors can be classified into cystic and' tissue tL:- 

 mors; 22.78 per cent of the tumors were of cystic and 74.68 per 

 cent of solid-tissue structure. There were two cases of tissue 

 tumors to which cysts were attached. 



(8) In the females ^ the organs most frequently afifected. 

 were the genital organs ; 37.76 per cent of all the tumors being 

 in the ovary and 18.36 per cent in the oviduct and oviduct liga- 

 ment. 



(9) In most cases the tumors were confined to one organ. 

 In 15 cases, however, the tumor had evidently undergone metas- 

 tasis, since tumors of similar nature occurred in from two to 

 four organs. 



*This is an abstract of a paper by Maynie R. Curtis, having the same 

 title and published in Journal of Agricultural Research, Vol. V, pp. 

 397-404. 1915. 



^Autopsies were made on too few males to yield reliable data. 



