Infectious Entero-hepatitis in Turkeys. 433 



and therefore distinct from the tissue nuclei. Near the centre in 

 most a blue circular line shows the outlines of the nucleus. 



Th. Smith compares this affection with the amoebic dysentery 

 affecting the large intestine and liver of man, and notes these 

 differences, that amoebic movements have not been observed in 

 amoeba meleagridis, and that hepatic abscess does not occur in the 

 turkey. The indisposition of the bird to suppuration may per- 

 haps account for the latter distinction. Smith found rounded 

 organisms in the tubules of the caeca and flagellates in the lumen 

 of the gut, but did not attach any importance to their presence. 

 Bacteria were only found in the lesions in the solid tissues where 

 the subject had not been killed and immediately examined, but 

 left over night for examination in the morning. There was no 

 constancy in their species as in the case of the amcebse, all indi- 

 cating that their invasion was post mortem. 



Symptoms. The disease is most frequent and fatal in the 

 young ( I to 4 months, exceptionally 6 to 10 months), and the 

 symptoms varj^ much in different cases, according to the intensity 

 of the disease and the relatively extensive implication of the dif- 

 ferent organs. Among the general symptoms are those of general 

 suffering and ill health, dulness, spiritlessness, drooping of the 

 head between the wings, a pendent condition of wings and tail, 

 erection of down or feathers, separation from the flock, the bird 

 moping alone and sitting much of the time. The more charac- 

 teristic phenomena which are rarely sufficient to identify the 

 disease unless it is known to be prevalent, are loss of ap'petite, a 

 greenish diarrhoea, yellowish or brownish discoloration of 

 mucosae, emaciation which becomes extreme if the subject sur- 

 vives long enough, and more or less blackish discoloration of the 

 protractile caruncle of the forehead and bare portions of the skin 

 covering the head. 



Lesions. These are characteristic, the caeca being greatly 

 enlarged, the walls thickened by a yellowish submucous exudate, 

 the epithelium disintegrated and desquamating, and the mucosa 

 covered by a solid yellowish gelatinoid exudate arranged in super- 

 posed layers, while the contents are soft, pasty or of a greenish 

 liquid appearance. The comparative stagnation of the contents 

 as in the appendix of man appears to favor microbian infection. 

 Amoebae are especially abundant in the exudate into the submucosa 

 28 



