70 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



found about the head, and had produced a peculiar swelling of tissues around 

 and within the orbit, producing on one side an exophthalmos. New growths 

 forming a continuous chain were found in front of the cervical vertebrae. 

 They had deformed the trachea, and pushed on one side the oesophagus and 

 crop. The new growth passed with the trachea into the pleuro-peritoneal 

 cavity, and had invaded the left lung, which it had practically replaced. The 

 pectoral muscles were covered by large tumour masses, which extended some 

 distance into them. The same type of tumour involved the abdominal wall, 

 and included the cloaca, the walls of which were much thickened by infiltra- 

 tion of the tumour. Similar growths were found beneath the skin of both 

 thighs. So far as could be ascertained, the lung of all the internal organs 

 was alone invaded by the new growth. On section the tumour was found to 

 be yellowish-white and fairly firm. 



Unfortunately the blood was not examined, as the bird had died before 

 sending on to me from County Clare, 



Case 2. — This fowl was sent from Forfarshire, N.B. It was in poor 

 condition, and had been dead some days on arrival. The distribution of the 

 new growths was even more extensive than in Case 1. The tumours were 

 found in the intermaxillary space (as large as a walnut), on left side of the 

 crop (size of pigeon's egg), on the shoulder, inside of both legs, on the 

 abdominal wall, involving the cloaca, the position of the opening of which 

 was displaced. They were also found on the sacrum in front of the coccyx 

 and on the outer aspect of the legs. The new growth had diffusely spread 

 along the mesentery, covering the entire membrane, apparently spreading 

 from the walls of the cloaca, which were much thickened by infiltration of 

 the new growth. 



The naked-eye characters of the tumours were as in Case 1, and there 

 were no appreciable differences on microscopic examination. 



I have only been able to find one reference, in the literature at my 

 disposal, to a similar condition in birds. A. S, Warthin^ reports the case of a 

 bantam-cock which showed nodular tumours with infiltration of lymphoid 

 cells in all organs and transformation of ordinary leucocytes of the blood into 

 lymphocytes identical with the tumour-cells. No parasites were found in the 

 new growths. Kon^ describes leukaemia in a fowl, said to be the first case 

 noticed, and says the leucocytes are large mononuclears; and in the only 

 reference which I have seen there is no mention of any new growths having 

 been observed. 



1 LeukDemia of Common Fowl. Journal of Infectious Disease, iv., 15 June, 1907. 



2 J. Kon, Ueber Leukamie beim Hubn Ascher fiir pathol. Anat. und Physiologie, vol. cxc, 

 338-350, 1907. - 



