A GUIDE FOR KEEPERS OF POULTRY 77 
ported an infectious disease among poultry, stating that 
in Rhode Island the disease was known as “blackhead.” 
This disease he called ‘Infectious Entero-hepatitis.” Dr. 
Smith said in his report that it might be well to retain 
the common name of the disease, although he did not 
beileve all cases of blackhead were the specific diseases 
he named. Dr. Moore of the Bureau of Animal Industry, 
who wrote a bulletin the same year for the bureau, re- 
tained the name, and although it has been considered an 
unsatisfactory one it has been used ever since. The dis- 
ease created havoc among turkeys in Rhode Island and 
Connecticut and where thousands of turkeys had been 
raised the business fell off until it was almost ruined. In 
the meantime this fatal disease began to spread, and at 
this time it has been found in nearly every state east of 
the Mississippi and north of the Ohio. 
Dr. Cooper Curtice of the Rhode Island, after studying 
the disease, published several bulletins concerning it, and 
after he severed his connection with the Rhode Island 
station Prof. Philip B. Hadley of the same station con- 
tinued his work. Blackhead is caused by a minute pro- 
toplasmic animal which Dr. Smith named Amoeba melea- 
gridis, which may be described as “a minute parasitic 
animal capable of living within the tissues of the turkey 
its host. It can therefore eat, grow and reproduce itself 
in large numbers, thereby causing irritations, destruction 
of the tissues and nearly always the death of the invaded 
turkeys.” Dr. Curtice says: 
‘Although so elementary in its structure this parasite 
has practically destroyed the turkey industry of New 
England and is rapidly depleting western flocks.” 
The writer has been called on to determine the nature 
of diseases occurring in flocks of turkeys as far west as 
