46 THE GROUSE DISEASE chap. 



chapter. The microbe from the heart's blood culti- 

 vated in gelatine plates, in streak and stab in gelatine, 

 in Agar, in broth, and on potato, is in every essential 

 the same as already described ; so that there can 

 be no doubt that the microbe of the lung and liver 

 of the spring grouse, and of the heart's blood of the 

 autumn grouse, is the same in morphological and cul- 

 tural respects ; and since the pathological appearances 

 of the grouse dead in the autumn are identical with 

 those dead during the spring and early summer, we 

 are justified in saying that the autumnal disease is 

 also the real grouse disease. Now, on inquiry, it is 

 found that the disease in the late summer and autumn 

 is of less frequent occurrence ; this is, of course, to be 

 expected, seeing that the total number of the grouse 

 rapidly diminishes during the shooting season. But 

 when saying that the disease is less frequent during 

 the summer and autumn, I am not referring to such 

 a cause of diminution. I am referring to moors in 

 which no epidemic disease has been prevalent during 

 the spring, or in which no great amount of shooting 

 has been going on in August. I have received birds 

 during August, September, October, and the be- 

 ginning of November, from moors in which very 

 little or no disease had been present in the spring 

 and early summer, and yet birds died now and then 

 during the autumn. We may from this conclude that 



