DIPHTHERIA CARRIED BY TURKEYS.
Doctor Paulinis, in the Bulletin Medical, reports a most interesting epidemic of diphtheria which occurred in Skiatos, one of the Grecian isles, in the year 1884. The population of this island, at the time, was about four thousand. Doctor Bild, an old practitioner, is the authority for the statement that for thirty years no case of diphtheria had been known on the island. In June a child aged twelve years was attacked with diphtheria, and died. Seven other cases occurred in the immediate neighborhood; five of these died. The disease extended, until, within a period of five months, one hundred persons were attacked, of which number thirty-six died. Three weeks before the sickness of the first child, a flock of turkeys had arrived from Salonica. Two of these were sick on arrival, and each of the others was subsequently attacked. Doctor Paulinis found in the throats of the sick ones, patches of false membrane. The glands of the neck were swollen, and in one bird the disease had extended to the larynx, making it hoarse. One of the turkeys, after recovery, had paralysis of the legs, and was unable to walk. Although there had been no immediate contact between the sick birds and the first child attacked, still the distance between them was slight, and a wind had for some time been blowing in a direction favorable to the transportation of the disease. Doctor Paulinis believed that the disease was contracted from the turkeys, its germs being carried by currents of air.—Selected.