SYNOPSIS OF CONTINENTAL VETERINARY JOURNALS. 693 
genic point of view, what share in the production of the 
conditions which brought about death must we attribute to 
this anomaly? We believe not the least! Indeed, every¬ 
thing tends to show us that this lesion or anomaly is per¬ 
fectly compatible with the due performance of the functions 
of the body. Have we not said that the horse was well 
developed, that it was very muscular, and in good condition ? 
Does not this prove that the animal was in good health and 
had never probably been seriously ill ? But the abnormal 
structure, the invading cartilage, could not form in a few 
days; it could acquire its dimensions and supplant the 
muscular structure only little by little. Perhaps the time of 
the change belonged to the foetal stage.” (Summary.) 
On Diphtheria of Birds and its supposed identity ivith that 
of Man , by M. Megnin. 
“Dr. Nicati, of Marseilles, has communicated to the 
Academy of Sciences and to the Society of Public Medicine 
and of Professional Hygiene, a note on “A possible means of 
propagation of diphtheria ,” in which the author, relying on a 
coincidence which he has observed between the appearance 
of diphtheria of the fowl and that of the human species, and 
the similarity between the clinical records in each case, also 
communicability by means of inoculation with false mem¬ 
branes of the first named disease to other birds and to the 
rabbit, arrives at the conclusion that identity of the two 
diseases is probable, and suggests adoption of the following 
measures: (1) To prescribe a rigid inspection of poultry 
when brought into the town. (2) To trace out the sources 
of the affection in order to eradicate them. M. Nicati seems 
to know the diphtheria of fowls only by the account which 
M. Dupont has given of an epizootic which raged in Gironde 
in 1854-5, and by the facts which have been communi¬ 
cated to him by M. Gavard, V.S.,of Marseilles, The disease, 
which is very common, has, however, been carefully studied 
by many authors, especially by M. Ercolani at Turin, in 1861; 
by MM. Tripier 8f Arloing , in 1872; by Dr. Pietra Piana at 
Bologna, in 1876, and also by myself last year. It is known 
to breeders under the names Qumsey, Chancre , fyc., and 
presents two forms, generally in the same patient simul¬ 
taneously : 1st. A false membranous form characterised by 
deposits of a more or less deep yellowish-white colour, which 
are found investing one or more of the following organs : 
tongue, pharynx, nasal chambers, larynx, crop, intestines, and 
air-passages. 2ndly. A tuberculous form marked by the pro¬ 
duction of caseous and granular yellow spherical masses in 
parenchymatous organs as areolar tissue, the intestinal 
