"GROUSE DISEASE" 195 



" In one extreme case," he says, " I particularly noticed a remarkably gorged 

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

 irritation set up by parasites in overwhelming numbers. . . . There was no 

 rupture of the capillaries and consequently no extravasation in the cssca or 

 in any part of the intestinal canal." 



This condition of the caecal villi is very typical of extreme Strongylosis 

 as observed by the Committee, just as the same engorged condition to a lesser 

 degree of the intestinal villi is typical of Helminthiasis generally. Nor is it 

 by any means so rare as one might gather from Cobbold's description. Yet 

 Professor Klein makes no mention of any condition at all approaching it in 

 character, in any of the birds examined by him, though he allows the almost 

 universal infection by the Trichostrongylus. 



Professor John Young wrote a paper on Certain Aspects of the Grouse 

 Disease, in the " Natural History Proceedings of the Glasgow University," 

 vol. i. (quoted in Macdonald's "Grouse Disease"). 1 Unfortunately, he Pro- 



fGSSOl* J 



does not differentiate between the different portions of the intestine ; Young, 

 but he appears to have had a most abnormal series of birds to examine. In 

 two of three Argyllshire birds he found general peritonitis due to perforation 

 of the gut which must have occurred a sufficient length of time before death 

 to allow of adhesion and short circuiting. 



Dr Andrew Wilson is also represented as having satisfied himself "by 

 repeated dissections and careful observation that a markedly congested appear- 

 ance of the mucous surface and of the digestive and respiratory tracts was 

 almost invariably present in birds which had been found dead." 1 



John Keast Lord and Frank Buckland are represented by the same indefatig- 

 able collater as having "satisfied themselves that the disease was dis- j h n 

 organisation of the liver accompanied by inflammation of the chest a n,jF r 

 viscera." The pity is that we can never know what amount of exact Buckland - 

 observation these vague descriptions really covered. As they stand they cannot 

 be considered of any value. 



Tom Speedy writes as follows rather more to the point : "In post-mortem ex- 

 amination in a number of birds we discovered intense inflammation of the bowels ;. 

 while by the aid of the microscope, immense quantities of strongyle were Tom 

 discernible in the inflamed parts . . . such cases were exceptional when 8 P eed y- 

 contrasted with that other more loathsome form of the malady which seems 



1 Macdonald, "Grouse Disease," p. 141. 2 Ibid., p. 145. 



