GROUSE DISEASE^ 



By ARTHUR E. SHIPLEY, F.R.S. 

 Master of Christ's College, Cambridge, and Reader in Zoology in the University 



"The longer I live, the more I am convinced that the apothecary 

 is of more importance than Seneca ; and that half the unhappi- 

 ness in the world proceeds from little stoppages, from a duct 

 choked up, from food pressing in the wrong place, from a vext 

 duodenum, or an agitated pylorus." 



Thus, that incorrigible amateur-physician, Sydney Smith 

 wrote of our poor suffering humanity, and thus we can as 

 truly write of the grouse. Little stoppages, food pressing in 

 the wrong place, a vext duodenum, and an agitated blind-gut 

 and there you have " Grouse disease " ! 



At the onset I must, however, protest against that fallacious 

 and all-embracing expression. It will be difficult to get rid 

 of, for the average keeper and sportsman is seldom clinically 

 inclined and if he see his birds diseased or dead or dying, and 

 they are grouse, he is content to put it all down to " grouse 

 disease " and to leave it at that. But grouse suffer and die 

 from many diseases. In a few dozen birds examined chiefly 

 in Cambridge the following disorders were seen : — Pleuro- 

 pneumonia in a bird which had lived long in captivity ; 

 pericarditis; necrotic changes in the liver; chronic diseases 

 of the peritoneum ; and a septic infection due to gangrene 

 supervening upon a broken wing. 



Sick and dying animals are apt to creep away into corners 

 and hide themselves ; thus it comes about that when these 

 animals die patently and in large numbers, the public is apt 

 to regard this mortality as due to some disorder peculiar to 

 the animal in question, and the disease receives the name of 

 the species which is afflicted. Hence we hear of such illnesses 

 as " horse-sickness," " silk-worm disease " and " grouse disease." 



The disorder which is usually associated with the too com- 



' A Lecture delivered at the Royal Institution, February 3, 191 1. The Lecture 

 includes certain paragraphs reprinted from The Times and The Ejtcydopcedia of 

 Sporty by the kind permission of the respective proprietors and editors. 



