PART II. THE GROUSE IN DISEASE 



CHAPTER VII 



CAUSES OF MORTALITY IN THE RED GROUSE 



By Lord Lovat and Edward A. Wilson 



IN classifying all diseases it must be remembered that before it can be scientifically 

 named it is necessary to ascertain whether the disease in question has ^3*^ 

 an individuality which can be specifically described and recognised of disease. 

 by definite characteristics and symptoms. 



It is an accepted rule of medical science that the primary cause of a 

 disease must be found before any attempt can be reasonably made to discover 

 a cure. Yet this important rule has been almost wholly ignored by Ascertain- 



* i i mentof 



the majority of writers upon " Grouse Disease, with a few notable primary 

 exceptions, such as Klein, Cobbold, and Farquharson. 



Hardly a writer on the subject but dwells in vague generalities, hope- 

 lessly mixing up observed facts with unsound theories, and primary with 

 predisposing causes ; for instance, if the chief object of the writer 

 of the following paragraphs had been to confound an already almost previous 

 hopeless confusion, he could hardly have been more successful : 



" What I still maintain is that the unwholesome food which Grouse have 

 been compelled to eat has occasioned both the worms with which they have 

 been infested and at least one type of the disease." 



"The disease appeared in all its virulence after the heather had been 

 damaged by hard frost ; but the crying evil is undoubtedly the overstocking 

 of the moors with sheep." 



" Grouse have materially suffered from cold late springs which have blighted 

 the heather." 



" Granting as I do that this nasty little parasite Strongylus does occasion 

 disease in Grouse, is there anything illogical in attributing the cause of the 



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