42 



cess to the interior of tlie earth worm, then when the 

 earth-worm is eaten by a chicken young gape-woiius 

 develop frcni these eggs and the chicken becomes dis 

 easfKi. Some of the gape-woi-ms are partially coughed 

 up and tlien swallowed by the fowl; the eggs in them 

 pass through tiie digestive tract and are voided with 

 the faeces so that in this way, also, the soil of the 

 barnyard or the water may become contaminated. 



The symptoms of gapes are very easy to recognize. 

 The afflicted fowl has difficulty in breathing; it opens 

 its mouth frequeitly and gaps, or gasps for breath. 

 This manr.er of opening the mouth is the characteris- 

 tic from which the disease derives its name. Thn'e 

 is some coughing accompanied by the expulsion of 

 frothy slime. Soraietimes tlie mature worms are 

 coughed out. The afflicted bird loses its spirits, it 

 stands about with the feathers ruffled and head down, 

 at intervals opening its mouth as thC'Ugh gasping for 

 air. If there is any doubt as to the nature of the dis- 

 ease an examination of the throat should be made. 

 This is done by catching the bird and holding the 

 mouti open by pressing with the thumb and finger on 

 each side of tlie beak. This forces the mouth open and 

 exposes the throat. Tlien by introducing a small ob- 

 ject to depress tie tongue the larynx may be exposed 

 :uid the interior examined. Pressure upon the larynx 

 from beloAv will force it up into plainer ^iew. Death 

 results in some cases quickly, from suffocation, and in 

 other cases slowly, from exhaustion and secondary dis 

 eases. When this disease appears in a, flock, the 

 afflicted fowls should at once be removed in order to 

 prevent tie distribution of the parasite. The worms 

 can frequently be removed from the wind pipe by in- 

 troducing a In.op made by doubling a horse-hair. This 



