Wellington Philosophical Society. 485 



hydatid that caused the disease " sturdy " or " gid " in sheep, and quoted 

 Dr. Cobbold to that effect. That the disease "sturdy" in sheep did 

 prevail in the Wairarapa he was convinced, from inquiries he had made 

 among sheep-owners in that district ; chough in nearly all cases, from a 

 want of knowledge of the subject, it had not been identified as " sturdj'," 

 but mistaken for " ergot "-poisoning. As a matter of fact, ergot, he said, 

 had little or no action on sheep except during the period of gestation; 

 but in healthy ruminants, when obtained or administered continuously 

 for a considerable period, it would most likely cause sloughing of the hoofs ; 

 this, with the exception of general falling-of! in condition, being usually 

 the first observable symptom of ergot-poisoning. All the symptoms that 

 had been described to him as due to ergot-poisoning were, as a matter of 

 fact, identical with the sym^otoms of "sturdy." Again, as a rabbit- 

 destructor, how did the disease act ? In the rabbit we find the hydatid 

 lodged in the connective tissue of the skin and muscles ; it grows to the 

 size, perhaps, of an orange, and is said to displace the vital organs to such 

 an extent as to cause death. But this is a very slow process : it takes weeks 

 for the hydatid to grow to even an appreciable size, and does not during 

 this period interfere with the reproductive powers of the rabbit ; and 

 •when it lias grown to a size sufficiently large to cause the displacement 

 of a vital organ, tlils is not sufficient to cause death. We all know how even 

 men can and do live with their vital organs in all sorts of strange positions, 

 and bunny does not seem less able to do so ; in fact, this displacement in 

 the rabbit being so very gradual gives nature a chance of accommodating 

 itself to its altered circumstances. He said he would be inclined to 

 attribute the improvement in the rabbit-pest in the Wairarapa to the 

 shooting, poisoning, and turning-out of the rabbit's natural enemies, 

 which ]\Ir. Coleman Phillips said had taken place, though he would 

 certainly grant that rabbit-fluke, existing as widely as ilr. Phillips had 

 represented it, would necessarily cause a certain mortality ; but he 

 believed this mortality would be extremely small, considering the nature 

 of the pest we have to deal with, and urged that the disease had been 

 propagated at far too great a risk to the sheep in the district. 



]Mr. Coleman Phillips, in reply to Mr. McClean, remarked that he 

 did not believe at all that the bladder-worm of the rabbit gave the sheep 

 in the Wairarapa sturdy, or gid. Tiiere were not many cases of sturd}^ or 

 gid, in the colony. It was a rare complaint amongst sheep, but in the 

 Wairarapa a few sheep had become apparently sturdied from eating ergot. 

 Mr. McClean said the runholders were wrong in thinking that ergot was 

 the cause of this ; but Mr. Phillips thouglit that the runholders were 

 right. He, however, desired to thank Mr. McClean for calling attention 

 to the matter, as he was equally desirous of and interested in keeping 

 diseases away from sheep. Professor Thomas had quoted from Rose in 

 his report, and that gentleman drew from that authority a conclusion 

 quite different from that of Mr. McClean. Bladdery rabbits were not 

 harmful to sheep ; and as to human beings, the Norfolk warreners have 

 been in the habit for years past of pricking the bladders, and then sending 

 the rabbits to market in the ordinary way. There were very few cases of 

 hydatid heard of in England, where bladdery rabbits must often be eaten. 



3. " Two Suggestions for the Consideration of the Governors 

 of the New Zealand Institute," by A. de B. Brandon. 



Abstract. 

 The writer, in calling attention to the many ways in which the 

 measurements of small objects were recorded, stated that fractions (both 

 vulgar and decimal) of an inch, lines, millimetres, and micro-millimetres 

 were used by different writers, and suggested that the Governors of the 

 Institute, in order to lessen the labours of a student, should insist on the 

 adoption of one system of measurement in papers submitted for publica- 



