188 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



Professor Klein came to the conclusion that there was a disease amongst 

 _ , Grouse which took the form of an acute infectious pneumonia, and 



Professor 



Klein's con- was characterised by the presence in the lung of a specific bacillus of 



elusions. 



the B. coli group. 



The disease had, he believed, two classes of victims, one which died rapidly in 

 plump condition and fine plumage, and another which died slowly with emaciation. 



He puts on one side the whole question of parasitic intestinal worms as 

 having no particular connection with this epidemic pneumonia, and no causal 

 connection with the mortality. Further, he agrees with the views of Dr D. G. F. 

 Macdonald, and allows that Dr R. Farquharson was the first (in a letter to the 

 Lancet, September 1874) "to state the opinion that the 'Grouse Disease' was 

 of the nature of a contagious fever." 



Dr Farquharson's view as given in Macdonald's " Grouse Disease," was that 

 the malady resembled an infectious or contagious epidemic fever. He considered 

 that the finding of dead birds, "some plump and in good condition, and some 

 reduced to skeletons," was in favour of the view " that the disease is of a specific 

 or constitutional nature." 



Klein disagreed with Dr T. Spencer Cobbold's view that the epidemic 

 "Grouse Disease" was due wholly to the presence of nematode worms. 



Dr Cobbold's view, was that "in the present epidemic" (1872), the disease 



was " entirely due to parasites," and that " the occurrence of these parasites in 



the intestines of so-called healthy Grouse does not destroy the notion 



Dr Cob- * 



boid's con- of disease from this source." " A strong bird," he says, " will overcome or 



elusions. . 



resist the irritation set up by the presence of hundreds of entozoa ; 

 while a feeble bird, or one attacked before it is perfectly grown, will more or 

 less rapidly succumb to the invasion. On these and other grounds, therefore, 

 I do not hesitate to express the opinion that the present Grouse murrain is due 

 to parasites. The irritation, probable distress and subsequent emaciation of the 

 birds are readily explained by the presence of hundreds and thousands of 

 strongyles ; and the mere circumstance that these parasites are very small, is 

 quite sufficient to account for the fact that investigators have hitherto over- 

 looked them." : 



"In one extreme case," he continues, "I particularly noticed a remarkable 

 gorged or distended condition of the csecal villi, such as would result from 

 continual irritation set up by parasites in overwhelming numbers. . . . There 



1 Macdonald, " Grouse Disease," p. 129. 



2 T. Spencer Cobbold, M.D., F.L.S., F.R.S. "The Grouse Disease," p. 15. London : The Field Office, 1873. 



