277 



lately told that only small and common ones can be brought up 

 witliout egg. When I asked my informant to explain why 

 and how the physiology of a bird should so materially alter 

 along with a slight difference of carriage, or an extra half-inch 

 of feathers, or less than a quarter of an ounce in weight, all 

 brought about by purely artificial, i.e, arbitrary human selection, 

 he was ominously silent. 



BACTERIOLOGY versus RATS AND MICE IN THE 

 AVIARY : — It has occasionally been suggested to me, and still 

 more often has it been emphatically asserted in my absence, 

 that bird keepers did not want a lot of " rubbishing science." 

 What they wanted was something " practical " and " useful." 

 One of our members at one time actually wrote me two or 

 three letters, urging me to withdraw " The Stor}' of Bird 

 Death," on the grounds that he could not understand it and 

 did not see the use of it, though an explanation of this may 

 perhaps be found in what he has since told me — without doubt 

 truthfulh' — viz. that he had never read any of it. 



But that modern pathology is of infinitely more real use to 

 the aviculturist at large than the vague guesswork of a past 

 generation is becoming a recognised fact among the more 

 intelligent members of our bird-keeping community. In short 

 it is now seen that "rubbishing science" is more practical in 

 its effects than the soothing syrup of the " Russ school." 



From the letters of Drs. Wallace and Snell, and from my 

 own remarks in this journal and elsewhere, it will have been 

 gathered that the work undertaken purely as a labour of love by 

 Dr. Clarke and myself, (in the first place bv the former alone), 

 at last meets with a substantial reward, inasmuch as its records 

 will be a decisive answer to those, who in obedience to the 

 modern trend of popular opinion on the question of tubercu- 

 losis will probably very shortly attempt to curb and contract 

 our liobb}', as being presumably dangerous to the public 

 health. And if, through the publicity which fortunately has 

 been lately given to the question, other investigators are led to 

 examine the matter for themselves, our interests will be 

 still more strongly safe-guarded in the future. 



Another instance of the value of scientific research is to 

 be found in the annals of a certain disease which attacks 

 mice and rats. Dr. J. Danysz of Paris, who investigated it, 

 found that while fatal under certain conditions to these 

 animals, all others, including birds, were immune against it. 

 He first isolated the bacillus during a spontaneous outbreak of 



