I 



LIBRARY, 



UNIVERSITY 



— OF— 



CALIFORNIA. 



THE GAPE DISEASE OF FOWLS, AND THE PARASITE 

 BY WHICH IT IS CAUSED. 



MEMOIR OX A VERMINOUS EPIZOOTIC DISEASE OF TSE PREASAXTRIES* AND ON 

 THE PARASITE WHICH CAUSES IT, THE STNOAMUS TRACHEALIS (SIEB.), SCLER- 

 OSTOMA STNOAMUS (DIES.), BT M. P. MEGNIX, LAV RE ATE OF THE INSTITUTE 

 {ACADEMIE DES SCIENCES), MEMBER OF THE SOCI£tE DE BIOLOGIE. HONORARY 

 ASSOCIATE OF THE ROYAL VETERINARY COLLEGE OF LONDON, ETC. 



[Translated by Dr. Theobald Smith.] 



For several years past tlie pheasautries of the hunting forests of 

 France have been ravaged by a most destructive malady, which has 

 killed the fowls by the hundreds and even thousands. The cause is a 

 parasite, a so-called red worm, which develops in the trachea of birds 

 and finally sufibcates them. Particularly the young subjects, from six 

 weeks to three months of age, are apt to be the victims, although adults 

 by no means are always spared. The chief symptoms of this affection 

 are a suppressed or aborted cough and a characteristic gaping, whence 

 is derived the English name " gapes." It appears to have been ob- 

 served long ago in England and America, whilst with us it has not yet 

 been studied, a fact which seems to indicate that it has been introduced 

 from England, and that we owe its introduction to commerce by which 

 the hunting grounds have been restocked. 



I investigated this disease on the site of its activity in the inclosures of 

 the forest of Fontainebleau in 1878 and 1879. I received many cadavers 

 killed by the red worm from different localities of central and northern 

 France; from the poultry-yard of Baron Rothschild, atEambouillet, where 

 the daily losses amounted to 1,200 ; from M. de Janz6, of Gournay ; from 

 the duchess de la Rochefoucault, at Montmirail ; from the inclosures 

 at Chauteau-neuf, and from various localities of Loiret and de I'Indre. 

 Finally a dispatch, in October, 1880, informed me that the epidemic 

 had appeared in the royal pheasautries at Turin, and was threatening 

 to do much mischief. 



This disease is not at present raging on the continent only. For ten 

 years it has been the cause of severe losses in England. Dr. Crisp 

 estinuites that the red wormtlestroys annually half a million chickens, 

 excluding i)heasants and partridges, so that he says it would be of 

 truly national importance to find the meaiis of preventing the invasion 



* This monograph, finished November, 1880, has reference to the epidemics in the 

 l)heasantries of Fiance. 



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