104 CONTAGIOUS DISEASES OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS. 



of this red worm or of destroying it.* Furthermore, the following 

 statement is taken from the report of the meeting of the Loadon Ento- 

 mological Society, October 1, 1879 : 



The president announced that Lord Walsingham, in conjunction with other gentle- 

 men, had placed at the disposal of the council the sum of £100 to be awarded in two 

 prizes of £50 each for the following subjects : 



1. The best and most complete life history of ScJeroatoma syngamus, supposed to 

 produce the so-called gapes in poultry, game, and other birds. 



2. The best and most complete life history of Strongylus pergraciUs (Cob.), supposed 

 to produce the grou.se disease. 



No life history would be considered satisfactory unless the different stages of de- 

 velopment were observed and recorded ; the competition was open to naturalists of 

 all nationalities. Essays in English, German, or French were to be sent to the sec- 

 retary of the society on or before October 15, 1882. 



Although birds only are concerned in this matter, it is obvious that 

 the economic interest involved in a solution of the questions con- 

 cerning the gapes is sufficiently great. The scientific interest is no less 

 so, because there Is to be determined not only the zoological position of 

 the worm under consideration, and its role in the terrible disease which 

 destroys the gallinaceans, both domestic and wild, but also its mode of 

 reproduction, a point hitherto entirely unknown. 



This is the subject of the present memoir, a memoir in which I be- 

 lieve I have cleared up all the pending questions upon the zoological 

 position of the red worm, on its anatomy and physiology, on its role as 

 a cause of the gapes, finally on its embryogeny and metamorphosis, 

 and consequently upon its mode of propagation, and ui)on the best 

 means of preventing its multiplication and arresting its ravages. 



HISTORICAL. 



The first mention of this disease was made by Dr. Wiesenthal, who 

 observed it in 1799, at Baltimore, Md., among hens and turkeys.t In 

 1806, 1807, and 1809, Georges Montaguf saw this epizootic among chick- 

 ens in England. He believed that of all the birds of the poultry yard 

 only the hen could be its victim, because he observed that the turkeys 

 and ducks living with the infested hens were not attacked. He ob- 

 served the same malady in young pheasants at a time when they as- 

 sume the livery which distinguishes the two sexes, and in partridges 

 whether the locality was elevated or low and humid. 



Both Wiesenthal and Montagu recognized that this disease was caused 

 by worms occupying the trachea and extending occasionally to the phar- 

 ynx, but never as far as the lungs. They found as many as twenty at- 

 tached to the mucous membrane, which, together with the lungs, was 



*Fath. Society of London, October 15, 1872, and Med, Times, 1672, p. 474. 

 iMedical and Physical Journal (1799), II, p. 204. 



tAccount of a species of fasciola which infests the trachea of poultry, with a mode of 

 cure. Trans, of the Jl'ernerian N<tf. Hist. Society, I (1811), p. 195. 



