82 Mr Scoular on Tania found in the Intestines of the Grouse. 



an astonishing quantity of worms, clustered together in knots, 

 and even distending the coats of the intestines. On laying open 

 the intestines, the worms were found among a great portion of 

 intestinal mucus. In some cases, the intestines had been perfo- 

 rated, and the animals had escaped into the cavity of the abdo- 

 men, although none of their other contents had been thus eva- 

 cuated. The bodies of the worms completely filled up the 

 openings. On examining the worms, they proved to be the Taenia 

 Unea of Rudolphi, which that distinguished naturahst had found 

 to exist within the quail, while in Italy. The head of the animal 

 is globose, the neck long and capillary, and the posterior articula- 

 tions campanulate or infundibuliform ; length of body 12 inches. 

 The condition of the internal organs of the birds thus affect- 

 ed, appeared to be in no respect different from that of healthy 

 individuals ; except in the quantity of mucus in the intestines, 

 which appeared to afford a favourable nidus for the develop- 

 ment of the ova of the Tania. This circumstance may perhaps 

 assist us in ascertaining the cause of the disease. When we re- 

 member the abundance of moisture that prevailed at the com- 

 mencement of the present year, and the probably wet nature of 

 the food which the grouse were obliged to use, we may easily 

 comprehend how debility and disease of the intestines would be 

 induced, affording thereby a favourable habitation to these 

 parasites ; so that in this, as in most similar cases, the presence 

 of Tania is not a cause, but a consequence, of the weakness of 

 the birds. In many instances, worms of different kinds are 

 found in animals, causing apparently little or no inconvenience. 

 We have detected different species of ascarides in considerable 

 quantity, in the oesophagus of birds anid of serpents, which ap- 

 peared in no respect unhealthy. Even hundreds of worms may 

 exist in the liver of the shark, without rendering him less active 

 and vigorous. It is only when these animals infest organs 

 whose texture is readily injured, and which are of immediate 

 vital importance, that they are capable of producing fatal ef- 

 fects, as in the case of the Distoma cylindraceum in the lungs 

 of frogs ; and even then they are probably caused by the previ- 

 ous disease of the parts. On the other hand, some circumstances 

 render it likely that improper diet exerts an influence upon arii- 

 nials favourable to the production of worms. Thus rabbits. 



