604 DISEASE IN WILD MAMMALS AND BIRDS 
sciatic nerve, most marked on the right side, is a large hemorrhagic 
infiltration. There is edema of muscles and intermuscular septa all 
about this area extending upward as well as to pelvis and psoas muscle. 
This latter within the abdomen shows slight blood stained edema. No 
other muscle shows this hemorrhage. Microscopic section of liver and 
kidney are negative aside from congestion. The stomach shows very 
irregular epithelial covering, in some places wholly desquamated. Where 
this is most marked there is a dense round cell infiltration in the villi 
with some increase in the connective tissue cells. This chronic inflamma- 
tory reaction is present in all fields, most marked, of course, in upper 
layers of mucosa. Glands are distorted and upper epithelium of them 
is polyehromatophilic. The intestine shows similar changes in less in- 
tense manner. 
Waterfowl Epizootic. There is reproduced here an 
account of an unexplained epizootic among ducks and 
geese from the Annual Report of tJie Zoological Society 
for 1916. Nothing additional has been learned and no 
repetition has occurred since the drainage and cleaning 
of the lake. 
There began on August 27 a series of deaths among the waterfowl 
and in one month there were lost forty-one specimens including both 
ducks and geese. Four additional cases were scattered through the next 
four months, the last case dying Januarj' 11, 1916. All of these came 
from the lake, none being from the adjacent stream for rare waterfowl 
or from the more distant stream into which the lake drains. The symp- 
toms were most marked and striking. In the early stages the wings 
drooped, then the legs became weak followed by inability to raise the 
head. In the latest cases the voice (ducks) lost its normal character and 
became hissing. The mind appeared clear for the eyes Avere bright, 
feathers unruffled and the bird attempted to escape when approached. 
Diarrhoea was present, dejecta thin, watery white, no admixture of 
mucus. Autopsy findings were not frank. At most some swelling of the 
spleen and a little pale thickening of the intestinal wall constituted the 
picture. Smears from intestine and nasal mucosa showed no protozoa. 
The blood taken from the living sick ducks showed no parasites or anemic 
changes in either raw or variously stained preparations. From the 
spinal cords of three ducks a 50 per cent, glycerine emulsion was pre- 
pared and was injected into the cerebral substance and abdomen of 
domestic ducks with negative results. A variety of different bacterial 
cultures was obtained from the liver, spleen, blood and congested nasal 
mucosa of several birds dead with the disease and injected into domestic 
ducks with negative results. Histological sections were cut from the 
important organs of thirteen birds. The kidneys, lungs and pancreas 
showed no abnormalities. The heart muscle in some cases and also 
