DIPHTHERIA IN FOWLS 491 
angina in children traced to this disease in fowls. Although these 
maladies are shown to be unlike in their etiology and the character of 
their lesions, the transmission of fowl diphtheria to the human species, 
and vice versa, is affirmed by several observers.* 
Prevention. In order to prevent roup it is evident that many 
conditions must be strictly complied with. The character of the food 
and the general sanitary conditions, including cleanliness, ventilation 
and the temperature of the poultry houses, must be considered. 
Undoubtedly there is much to be learned in connection with the proper 
sanitary care of poultry. In addition to the general sanitary methods 
the following rules should be observed. 
Fowls which have an exudate on any of the mucous membranes of 
the head, or which have come from flocks in which such a disease 
exists, or has recently existed, should not be placed among healthy 
poultry. 
If the disease appears in one or more fowls of a flock they should be 
immediately separated from the well ones. If possible, the source of 
the infection should be determined and removed. 
The quite common practice of allowing fowls from different flocks 
to run together during the day should be discouraged. 
Care should be taken to avoid the possibility of bringing the virus ~ 
from affected flocks in the dirt or excrement which naturally adheres 
-to the shoes in walking through an infected chicken yard. The same 
care is necessary in the interchange of working implements, such as 
shovels, hoes and the like. 
*Gerhardt reports 4 cases of diphtheria in Wesselhausen, Baden, among 6 workmen 
who had charge of several thousand fowls, many of which died of diphtheria. There 
were no other cases of diphtheria in the neighborhopd and the evidence was quite 
conclusive that the disease was contracted from the affected fowls. 
Debrie (Centralblatt f. Bakteriologie, Bd. XIII (1893), S. 730) reports briefly the 
transmission of human diphtheria to fowls. He is inclined to the view that human 
diphtheria is transmissible to fowls and fowl diphtheria to man. Cole (Archives of 
Pediatrics, XI (1894), p. 381) reports a case of supposed transmission of the disease 
from a fowl to a child. ve 
The diphtheritic disease of fowls reported by Loir and Ducloux in Tunis, in 1894, 
spread to the people of that place, resulting in an epidemic of serious proportions. 
Ménard refers to the fact that men employed to feed young squabs contracted diphthe- 
ria by blowing the masticated food into the mouth and crop of squabs suffering with 
that disease. Schrevens reports several cases of diphtheria in children in which he 
traces the source of infection to certain poultry. ; 
The non-identity of these diseases has been clearly pointed out by Ménard. ; 
Guérin has pointed out with emphasis that there is no relation between diphtheria 
in man and in fowls. 
