White Diarrhea 287 



forms of white diarrhea this may or may not be the case. 

 These different forms of white diarrhea have been too little 

 studied as yet to permit of an exact differential diagnosis 

 on external symptoms even supposing that ever to be pos- 

 sible. 



Up to the time of writing no further work has appeared 

 to substantiate the claims that this coccidium is an impor- 

 tant cause of white diarrhea. On the other hand, work 

 with the bacillary form of this disease has been carried on 

 by a number of investigators. At the present time it 

 appears that by far the greater number of epidemics of white 

 diarrhea are caused by the bacterium described below. 



Bacillary White Diarrhea 



In May, 1908, Rettger and Harvey ^ published a paper 

 on " Fatal Septicemia in Young Chickens or White Diarrhea." 

 From a large number of observations and experiments they 

 came to the conclusion that white diarrhea was caused by a 

 bacterium. A number of later papers by Rettger and his 

 associates have appeared since then. In these it has been 

 clearly proven that at least one form of white diarrhea is 

 caused by a bacterium. 



Rettger took chicks which had died with all the symptoms 

 of white diarrhea and by the ordinary bacteriological methods 

 obtained pure cultures of a bacterium which had certain 

 definite reactions and habits of growth. By these methods 

 this bacterium can be distinguished from other kinds. To 

 this species of bacteria he gives the name Bacterium pullorum. 

 If entirely healthy chicks are inoculated with the pure 

 culture of this bacterium they almost invariably show 



' Rettger, L. F.,and Harvey, S. C, "Fatal Septicemia in Young 

 Chickens or White Diarrhea." Jour. Med. Research., Vol. 18, pp. 

 277-290, 1908. 



