Pseudomembranous Stomatitis of Pigeons and Chickens. 71 



Trinchera found that in acute cases the acme was reached in 

 fifteen days after which improvement might be looked for. A 

 chronic form affecting the gullet might however persist indefi- 

 nitely in pigeons without proving incompatible with good health. 



Paralysis of the wings or limbs may remain after the healing 

 of the local lesions. 



Mortality. Prognosis. The di.sease is very fatal to both 

 pigeons and chickens, 50, 70 or even 100 per cent, perishing 

 when a flock is attacked for the first time. In flocks that have 

 previously suffered, on the other hand, a large number are prac- 

 tically immune, and even if they contract the disease it a,ssumes 

 a mild form, and they survive but may retain the germ and con- 

 tinue to conununicate it to others. Even the young of such 

 immune flocks suffer less severely, coming as they probably do 

 from less .su.sceptible and therefore surviving birds, or having 

 already perhaps contracted a mild (non-fatal) type of the disease 

 from their parents. 



Differential Diagnosis. From psorospermosis {coccidiosis^ it is 

 distinguished by its origin on the mucous membranes, and not on 

 the skin, the .skin lesion being a secondary one. In psorosper- 

 mosis the primary lesion is usually on the skin, from which it 

 extends to the mouth and especially along its floor. In psoros- 

 permosis the morbid deposit assumes the form of rounded warty- 

 like ma.sses, on comb or wattles ; is easily propagated by inocula- 

 tion, is promptly checked by antiseptics, does not tend to produce 

 internal extension nor generalization, and on micro.scopic examina- 

 tion shows numerous .spheroidal coccidia intermingled with the 

 epidermic cells and posses.siug amoeboid movement. By virtue 

 of this automatic movement they make their way between and into 

 the epidermic cells in which they multiply. 



From the croupous angina of Rivolta it is distinguished by the 

 ab.sence of the infusoria (monocercomonas gallinae) to which he, 

 Delprato and Pfeiffer attributed that affection. The monocerco- 

 monas is a flagellate organism 14/* to 25 ^ in length and 5 /i to 

 7 /n in breadth. Its rounded end bears one flagellum as lon^ as 

 the body, and its acute end three flagella which give it active 

 motions. These are found in the yellowish white swellings of 

 the mucoisa, which vary in size from a millet seed to a pea, 

 covering a hyperaemic spot and composed of epithelial cells, blood 



