FOWL CHOLERA. 
337 
recently dead birds; or by introducing portions of the flesh or 
blood of very sick or dead birds beneath the skin. The disorder 
is not accompanied by eruptions on the skin, but is characterized 
by elevated temperature, dullness and loss of appetite, often deep 
somnolence, by paleness about the fleshy part of the head, and 
by yellow coloration of that part of the excrement which is sep¬ 
arated by the kidneys. The most marked and constant lesion is 
an intense congestion of the liver, with enlargement and soften¬ 
ing ; and there are frequently other complications which, for the 
purposes of this communication, it will be unnecessary for me to 
enumerate. My aim is simply to establish the fact that this is a 
virulent internal disease, or in other words a contagious fever. 
A little over two years ago, M. Pasteur presented his commu¬ 
nication on this subject to the Academy of Medicine,* and short¬ 
ly afterwards the writer began his investigations of it, which 
were continued until the present, and are not yet entirely finished. 
The facts demonstrated by these researches, which bear upon the 
etiology of the disease, are briefly as follows: 
1. The virulent liquids of the fowl’s body contain micrococci. 
If we examine the blood or tissue-juices of a bird nearly dead of 
cholera, or from one that has recently died, we may find a con¬ 
siderable number of granules bavins: the dumb-bell form, or some 
apparently single globules, caused by one part being directly be¬ 
yond the other in the line of vision. These bodies are extremely 
small, less than one-thirty-thousandth of an inch in short diame¬ 
ter, and perfectly motionless. If the microscopist relies on this 
examination alone, however, it would not be strange if he remain¬ 
ed in doubt as to the nature of the granules which he has discov¬ 
ered. They might very reasonably be considered as granular fibrin, 
as the debris -of broken down cells, or as particles of uncertain 
nature which have gained entrance from the atmosphere. It will 
be found difficult in many cases, if not generally, to obtain the 
bacterial reaction to coloring matter by staining with analin, vio¬ 
let, or other agents. 
*L. Pasteur. Sur les maladies viruleutes et en particulier sur la maladie 
appelee vulgairemenfc cholera des ponies .—Bulletin de l 1 Academie de Mcdecine } 1880, 
p. 121. 
