ii6 



ure to the air as they are gradually extruded by the 

 rapidly accumulating masses of bacteria at the base, 

 they form a kind of scab in exactly the same way as 

 we have noticed in the case of Mr. Gladstone's Wood- 

 pigeon described in the last chapter. These scabs 

 often assume a condition of horny hardness, and have 

 sometimes attained to a total length of an inch or even 

 more, then appearing something like a curly horn. 

 On being broken away the base is seen to be an 

 excavated ulcer filled with a semifluid mass of septic 

 bacteria in a state of pronounced reproductive activity. 



The above collective appearances represent what 

 was described as tuberculosis by the honestly enquir- 

 ing early observers with their necessarily imperfect 

 methods of observation, and what continues to be 

 so described by those who either cannot or do not 

 investigate the truth for themselves with the assistance 

 of modern methods and knowledge. Unfortunately 

 for the rapid advance of science, the habit of stereo- 

 typing the errors of our predecessors is only too often 

 met with ; luckil}^ however the field of research is still 

 open to the present day honest enquirer, who, like his 

 prototype, approaches the subject with an open mind, 

 but who, unlike him, possesses the advantage of a 

 wider acquaintance with pathological side lights. 



The following is such a case of the disease in its 

 later stages. A Grey Parrot which had been privately 

 brought from lyiberia, came nine months afterwards 

 into the possession of a lady of my acquaintance, the 

 wife of a medical man. In three months it died. She 

 told me that it already wheezed and had diarrhoea 

 when she obtained it, and that this continued up to its 

 death, the diarrhoea becoming progressively worse as 

 the time went on. 



I examined it within a couple of hours after death. 

 It was exceedingly emaciated — almost a skeleton, and 

 the vent feathers were very dirty. In the sternal 



