10 
North Carolina Experiment Station 
In the year 1878 bacteriological technique had been somewhat advanced, 
and in this year, Perroncito presents under the term “epizootic typhoid” (fol¬ 
lowing the terminology of Lemaistre) results of the first scientific study of 
the disease which we at present must consider as typhoid of fowls, although 
Perroncito later came to the conclusion that the disease was fowl cholera. 
The decade following the work of Perroncito was a period devoted particu¬ 
larly to the study of fowl cholera, and interest in other cholera-like epidemics 
correspondingly waned, although it can scarcely be doubted that even at this 
time much confusion existed as to the real nature of the diseases that were 
studied. This was the period of the first definite knowledge of the organisms 
later to be recognized as the hemorrhagic septicaemia group, and it was 
marked by the brilliant researches of Toussaint and Pasteur. 
Eberth, in 1880, described under the heading of “affection diarrheique des 
perroquets” a malady characterized by great weakness and convulsions. In 
the blood was found a “special type of round organism.” The author believed 
the disease corresponded with the dysentery of parrots previously described 
by Percheron, and by Benion and Megnin. 
In 1884 Petri recorded an epidemic which attacked geese, ducks, and hens. 
The disease took the form of a septicaemia, the blood revealing great numbers 
of small bipolar organisms. Inoculations showed the culture to be pathogenic 
for mice, rabbits, and pigeons. Guinea pigs were refractory. The author 
believes the disease is similar to that previously studied by Gaffky, and was 
due to the “bacillus de la septicemie experimentale du lapin.” 
In 1888 Cornil and Toupet studied an epidemic among geese, spoken of as 
“cholera des canards.” This malady was caused by an organism simulating 
that of fowl cholera. The authors were able to show, however, that while the 
causative agent of fowl cholera was pathogenic for geese, rabbits, fowls, and 
pigeons, the causative agent of goose cholera was pathogenic in average doses, 
for geese only, and for rabbits in large doses only. They thus concluded that 
the organisms were different, though related, and that the virus of goose 
cholera had become fixed at a degree less virulent than that of fowls. Lig- 
nieres (1900), however, believed that the organism of these authors could not 
be placed in the Pasteurella group. 
The first reference to the typhoid-like diseases of birds in which the organ¬ 
ism is given a definite name is that of E. Klein, in 1889, who presents the 
details of an extensive epidemic among fowls in Kent, England. The mortality 
which developed in March, 1888, eventually reached over 400. With the ex¬ 
ception of the leukemic condition, the clinical symptoms and the post mortem 
findings agree well with those presented by Moore (1895) for his “infectious 
leukemia” of fowls. Klein’s description of the causative organism (Bacillus 
gallinarum), its occurrence in the blood, morphology, staining characteristics, 
inoculation experiments and cultural features in the few medias available for 
bacteriological use at that time, make it appear highly probable that he 
worked with the same bacterium which Moore described several years later 
under the head of Bacterium sanguinarium, the causative agent of infectious 
leukemia in the United States. 
Klein also studied in 1889, an epidemic among Scottish grouse. From these 
cases he obtained a small motile rod measuring 0.6 to 1.8 microns, which he 
termed B. scoticus. 
In 1889 Reick reported an epidemic among canaries in Dresden. All cases 
showed intestinal catarrh and liver changes. A polar staining organism was 
isolated from the organs. The number of bacteria in the blood was small. 
The organisms were mostly in pairs and showed marked motility. The 
author points to a close resp?riblance between this diseacc and fowl typhoid, 
and refers especially to the sulphur yellow necrosis at the site of inoculation. 
