AYES 443 



and it remains for some future laborer to condense the facts 

 which are dispersed throughout a very wide-spread literature. 

 As regards the particular species of nematoids that are either 

 actually known or conjectured to be injurious to birds I can only 

 find space to repeat some of the particulars which I have else- 

 where recorded in respect of Sclerostoma syngamus. In 1799 

 a letter from Dr Wiesenthal, of Baltimore, U.S., was published 

 in the ' Medical and Physical Journal/ containing an account of 

 a parasite infesting the trachea of fowls and turkeys in America. 

 The communication is dated May 21st, 1797, and is the first 

 public record concerning the entozoon. Dr Wiesenthal says : 

 " There is a disease prevalent among the gallinaceous poultry in 

 this country, called the gapes, which destroys eight -tenths of 

 our fowls in many parts, and takes place in the greatest degree 

 among the young turkeys and chickens bred upon old-established 

 farms. Chicks and poults, in a few days after they are hatched, 

 are found frequently to open their mouths wide and gasp for 

 breath, at the same time frequently sneezing and attempting to 

 swallow. At first the affection is slight, but gradually becomes 

 more and more oppressive, and it ultimately destroys. Very few 

 recover ; they languish, grow dispirited, droop, and die. It is 

 generally known that these symptoms are occasioned by worms 

 in the trachea. I have seen the whole [windpipe] completely 

 filled with these worms, and have been astonished at the animals 

 being capable of respiration under such circumstances." 



Any one who has witnessed the gapes will at once recognise 

 the accuracy of Wiesenthal' s description ; and so far as the 

 phenomena of the disease are concerned, very little more 

 has been added in the numerous accounts which have since 

 appeared. On the 1st of August, 1808, the English naturalist, 

 George Montagu, communicated to the Wernerian Society 

 a paper entitled " Account of a species of Fasciola which 

 infests the trachea of poultry, with a mode of cure." Mon- 

 tagu does not appear to have been aware of the existence 

 of any previous record. He gave a scientific description of 

 the parasite, which led to its being noticed in the systematic 

 works of Rudolphi, Dujardin, and Diesing, but the best accounts 

 of the worm are due to Von Siebold. Sclerostoma syngamus 

 has been found in the trachea of the turkey, domestic cock, 

 pheasant, partridge, black stork, magpie, hooded crow, green 

 woodpecker, starling, and swift. In July, 1860, I obtained a 

 fowl suffering from the gapes, and operated upon it in the 



