THE GROUSE DISEASE 



Others present all the conditions of excessive exhaus- 

 tion " (/.f. pp. 130 and 131). 



I may here at once state that this explanation 

 offered by Dr. Farquharson, as to the difference 

 of condition observed in birds dead of the grouse 

 disease, is one which I think perfectly correct and 

 one for which I shall be able to offer direct experi- 

 mental evidence. Moreover, it is one which from 

 analogy, i.e. such as is observed in other infectious 

 fevers, would, a priori, suggest itself. The next 

 noteworthy contribution made to our subject is by 

 Mr. Andrew Wilson, Lecturer on Zoology and Com- 

 parative Anatomy, Edinburgh, who in the Edinburgh 

 Medical Jottrnal gave the first accurate description 

 of the pathology of the disease. '* Mr. Wilson has 

 had many opportunities (Macdonald, pp. 145 and 146) 

 afforded him for the examination of grouse dying from 

 the disease, and he states that, in most of the birds 

 he examined, he observed a markedly congested 

 appearance of the mucous surface of the digestive 

 and respiratory tracts. Repeated dissections and 

 careful observations satisfied him beyond doubt of 

 the almost invariable presence of this lesion in birds." 

 Mr. Wilson "unhesitatingly" prefers the theory of 

 Dr. Farquharson, i.e. that the grouse disease is an 

 infectious fever ; " and the reasons for enlistment 

 under the banner of the epidemic hypothesis, rather 



