DISEASES AND TREATMENT. 
6G3 
shaped germ with rounded ends, and, second, a protozoon, the 
Coccidium tcnellum. The germ of the 'bacillary form has been 
isolated from the liver, spleen, kidneys and other organs of chicks 
dead of the disease, and the coccidian form from ulcers we have 
found in the caecum and intestines. 
Symptoms —The bacillary form is accompanied by droopy 
wings, ruffled feathers, sleepiness, a tendency to huddle together, 
and little or no appetite. The abdominal yolk is not properly 
absorbed and the whitish-brown, frothy discharge from the 
bowels adheres more or less to the vent fluff; the eyes are closed 
part of the time and there is apparently no interest in life. The 
appearance in many is stilty, with abdomen prominent behind, 
and they peep much of the time. In these cases, after death, one 
finds the yolk unabsorbed, or only partially so, and the intestines 
are more or less full. Chicks that hatch in late fall, winter or 
early spring are freer from this disease than summer hatched. 
This may be explained by the fact that hens with diseased ovaries 
gradually become poorer layers as the disease processes advance, 
and, hence, only lay in late spring or early summer when nature 
intends reproduction of birds. Finally the hen may cease laying 
altogether. 
In the coccidian form the symptoms as studied by the writer 
are similar to those of the bacillary form, except that, as a rule, 
the heavy death rate takes place later. 
Mode of Spread —In the bacillary form the ovaries of laying 
hens, diseased but still functionating, may be infected by the 
germ. The germ can be isolated, particularly from the yolk, of 
at least some of the eggs from such an ovary. The chicks from 
infected eggs, as a result, have the disease more or less developed 
when hatched, as conditions which favor hatching also favor the 
multiplication of the germs to such an extent that sufficient toxic 
poisons have already been produced in the young to cause the dis¬ 
ease, or at least manifest itself within a few hours after hatching. 
From these chicks the whitish, frothy, pasty bowel discharge, 
more or less sticky and with a tendency to paste up the vent, is 
laden with germs, and others of the flock soon become infected 
from contaminated food picked up from the ground. In the bacil- 
