DR. T. S. COBBOLD ON SCLEROSTOMA SINGAMUS. 311 



tlie feather is previously steeped iu some medicated solution which 

 will destroy the worms. Mr. Bartlett, Superintendent of the 

 Zoological Society's Gardens, employs for this purpose salt, or a 

 weak infusion of tobacco ; and he informs me that the simple 

 application of turpentine to the throat externally is sufficient to 

 kill the worms. To this plan, however, there is the objection, that, 

 unless much care be taken, the bird itself may be injuriously affected 

 by the drugs employed. 



Thirdly. The mode of treatment recommended by Mr. Mon- 

 tagu appears worthy of mention, as it proved successful in his 

 hands, although the infested birds were old partridges. One of his 

 birds had died from suffocation ; but he teUs us that " change of 

 food and change of place, together with the infusion of rue and 

 garlic instead of plain water to drink, and chiefly hempseed, 

 independent of the green vegetables which the grass plot of the 

 menagery afforded, recovered the others in a very short time." 



Fourthly. The plan I have here adopted by way of experiment. 

 This method is evidently only necessary when the disease has so 

 far advanced that immediate suffocation becomes inevitable ; or it 

 may be resorted to when other methods have failed. In the most 

 far-gone eases instant relief will follow this operation, since the 

 trachea may with certainty be cleared of all obstructions. 



Lastly. Perhaps the most essential thing to be observed, in 

 view of putting a check upon tlie future prevalence of the disease, 

 is the total destruction of the parasites after their removal — 

 a precaution, however, which cannot be adopted if Mr. Mon- 

 tagu's mode of treatment is followed. If the worms be merely 

 killed and thrown away (say, upon the ground), it is scarcely 

 likely that the mature eggs will have sustained any injury. De- 

 composition having set in, the young embryos will sooner or later 

 escape from their shells, migrate in the soil or elsewhere, and 

 ultimately find their way into the air-passages of certain birds in 

 the same manner as their parents did before them. 



