CHOLERAIC DIARRHCEA IN FOWLS. 373 



with the bacilli die in one or two days. Subcutaneous injection is 

 fatal in guinea-pigs and rabbits in from two to five days. Dogs, 

 cats, and fowls are immune. 



The bacilli were obtained from a cow suffering from a disease 

 associated with diarrhoea, and from the spleen of a man who died 

 twelve hours after partaking of the flesh of this animal. 



Dysentery. 



Dysentery is a disease of tropical climates associated with in- 

 flammation and ulceration of the large intestine (Fig. 160). At first 

 the discharge from the bowel is a whitish or brownish mvicus, 

 which soon becomes blood-stained; later the evacuations become 

 thin and watery, with altered blood clots, fragments of mucous 

 membrane, and pieces of false membrane ; and in some cases they 

 become purulent. The virus is believed to be in the intestinal 

 discharges, which by contaminating water or soil may give rise to 

 other cases. 



Micrococci have been found in dysentery, but the micro-organism 

 which has received most attention is a protozoon, the Amoeba coli, 

 which will be described in another chapter. 



Choleraic Diarrhcea in Fowls. 



Choleraic diarrhoea in fowls, or gastro-enteritis cholerica, is an 

 infectious disease of fowls, occurring in Russia during the summer. 

 The disease is very like fowl-cholera. The birds are sleepy, and 

 suffer from diai'rhoea, but the temperature is not raised, as in 

 fowl-cholera. After death there is usually an abundance of greyish 

 liquid in the small intestine, which is stained with blood. It was 

 investigated by Gamaleia, who found a comma-bacillus, to which he 

 gives the name Vibrio Metchnikovi. 



Spirillum of Powl-enteritis (Vibrio Metchnikovi). — Curved 

 rods and spiriUa ; thicker, shoi-ter, and more curved than Koch's 

 commas. They are motile, and possess a single flagellum at one end. 

 They stain with the usual dyes. Spore-formation doubtful. In plate- 

 cultivatioas minute white colonies appear in from twelve to sixteen 

 hours, and the gelatine is liquefied. The colonies in about three 

 days resemble those of both Pinkler- Prior's and Koch's comma-bacilh, 

 some colonies being more hke the one kind, and some like the other. 

 In the depth of gelatine the growth is very much like that of Koch's 

 comma-bacillus, possessing the characteristic air-bubble appearance. 



