364 PARASITIC DISEASE OF LUNGS. 



PARASITIC DISEASE OF LUNGS IN CALVES AND LAMBS. 

 PHTHISIS PULMONALIS VERMINALIS, LUNGEN-WUEMSEUCHE. 



Next to rot, this is by far the most destructive disease of 

 young sheep in the south of England. It is not so destructive 

 in Scotland, but has injured farmers much this season in 

 Ireland.* 



If the lungs of sheep are examined in butchers' shops, a 

 very large number of them will be found studded with de- 

 posits, once regarded as tubercular.*)- 



This tubercle, in reality, consists in a deposit of ova of the 

 strongylus filaria (Eeed), surrounded by epithelium and 

 granule cells, oily and crystalline deposit, with debris of 

 healthy lung tissue. Generally this opaque and semi-gelatinous 

 material is observed towards the more healthy part of the 

 lungs in the shape of circumscribed masses, often not exceed- 

 ing the size of an ordinary pin's head, and if each little nodule 

 be squeezed, a gritty substance, the result of cretifaction of 

 the above-mentioned deposit, is felt between the fingers. 

 Each nodule indicates a spot where the germs of the stron- 

 gylus filaria have been deposited, giving rise to irritation and 

 the exudation of material around them; in this material 

 granule and pus cells develope, and fatty, and lastly calcareous 



* As an indication of the importance of this disease, I may mention 

 that the farmers of Cornwall, through the Bath and West of England 

 Society, recently offered a prize of '30 for an essay on this disease, 

 which has been awarded to Dr Edward Crisp, who proves that the 

 disease is due to overstocking, and especially to the feeding off a second 

 crop of clover with lambs after the first crop has been consumed by 



t I was not aware myself of the real nature of this deposit until 

 1854, when I had the privilege of prosecuting, with Dr Ercolani, of the 

 Turin Veterinary School, some researches as to the methods of propa- 

 gation of parasitic worms. 



