106 CONTAGIOUS DISEASES OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS. 



Dnjardiu found the SynfjamustraeheaUs to the uumber of five pairs in 

 the trachea of two magpies {Corvus pica) at Eeiiues. He was able to 

 determine that even after maceration the male could not be separated 

 from the female without rupture of the integuments. 



This parasite has been found by Nathusius either in Germany or in 

 England within the trachea of the following species : The swift [Cypse- 

 Ills apus), the starling {Sturnus vulgaris), the green woodpecker {Picus 

 viridis), the pheasant cock {Phasiamis gallus), and the black stork {Ci- 

 conia nigra), granting that it was the same species. 



What relation exists between the two parasites of the bird's trachea 

 spoken of above — the fasciola of Montagu, the cause of the gapes, and 

 the Synganius of Siebold ? 



Dnjardiu and Diesing regarded as entirelj^ erroneous the classifica- 

 tion among the distomes of the parasite found by Montagu in the trachea 

 of birds affected with the gapes. This parasite was to them none other 

 than the Syngaynus, but as they did not enter into any details concern- 

 ing the accidents which it is liable to produce, some doubts appear to 

 have remained in the minds of French helminthologists concerning this 

 assimilation. For we read in M. Davaine's treatise on Entozoa (2d ed. 

 p. 37) the following statement concerning the parasites which cause the 

 gapes among the Gallinae : 



These eutozoa, which for a long time have beeu referred to the distomes, are proba- 

 bly identical with the Sclerostoma si/ngamus, a nematode worm, to which the perma- 

 nent union of male and female has given a particular physiognomy which has de- 

 ceived the earlier observers. 



The word " probably," in the above extract well indicates that for M. 

 Davaine there was as yet no certainty that the gapes was caused by 

 the Synganius trachealis ; there was only a probability. Moreover, in 

 the latest, fullest, and most noteworthy article which has appeared in 

 France on the subject of helminthology as applied to domestic ani- 

 mals,* the author, M. Baillet, without saying a single word about the 

 terrible disease, the gapes, with which in fact he does not seem to be 

 acquainted, limits himself to noting the existence of Syngamus bj' the 

 following sentence : 



Before concluding the tribe of sclerostomes, we will mention the genus Synganius 

 (Siebold), a parasite of various birds which has been occasionally observ^ed in the 

 trachea of the cock and the hen. 



This is all he says of this parasite. Up to the present, then, there 

 have been only vague conceptions or none at all, concerning the patho- 

 genic action of syngamus.t Even its natural history is poorlj^ known, 

 since in a remarkable monograph on a new nematode of the genus Red- 

 rurisl Prof. E. Perrier, citing incidently the helminths which present the 



* Article Helminthe, Diet. V4l4r'm. of Bouley and Reynal, vol. HI. Paris, 1866. 

 t According to Cobbold the Sipigamus is the sole cause of the gapes. 

 { Nouvelles Archives clu Museum, vol. VII., Paris, 1871. 



