196 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



to have been much more contagious." 1 By "the other" more loathsome form 

 of the malady he meant the acute disease which killed off birds while still in 

 excellent condition ; and, it is interesting to note, that, during this epidemic, cases 

 of "Cobbold's Strongylosis," such as he first described, were apparently exceptional. 



It is easy to see how incompatible was much of this with what the Committee 

 had seen of " Grouse Disease " during the first few years of the Inquiry, during 

 which " Cobbold's Strongylosis " had been in many places abundant, and Klein's 

 acute infectious pneumonia had been not only exceptional, but non-existent. 



Turning now to Klein's account of the pathology of " Grouse Disease," and 



remembering that he considered both the piners and the birds that died in good 



condition as alike victims of an acute infectious pneumonia, we find 



Klein. 



a very definite statement of pathological signs and lesions which he 

 diagnosed as the acute pneumonic disease. 



" One of the most prominent pathological changes in the diseased Grouse 

 is an acute congestion of one or both lungs, and this change, whether very 

 severe or less severe, is independent of the presence of Strongylus." ' 



This implied absence of Strongylus is difficult to accept as a fact, notwith- 

 standing Professor Klein's statement and the general accuracy of his observations. 

 The Strongylus is almost universally present in the Red Grouse of all ages, 

 Strongylus as *^ e Committee has been able to ascertain by the examination of some 

 ve"safin ni ~ two thousand birds from every part of the United Kingdom. When- 

 ever a case occurred in which its presence was not at once evident, a 

 special search has almost invariably revealed it. 



Dr Andrew Wilson came nearer to the truth of this matter when he stated 

 that " in one or two doubtful instances only could it be asserted or suggested 

 Dr Andrew ^ at none f tne round worms were present." He nevertheless puts 

 Helminthiasis aside, and believes that the " Grouse D'isease " is in 

 the main an infectious fever. He does this, moreover, with every show of 

 good reason, and in words to which we can hardly take the smallest exception, 

 save that he makes too light of the trouble which we now call Strongylosis. 

 He says, for example : " Outside the parasitic hypothesis, applicable as that 

 theory is to a certain class of cases, there lies, I am convinced, the great bulk 

 of fatal instances, the exact cause of which fatality must be sought for in 

 some lesion analogous to that involved in the idea of the epidemic theory." 3 



1 Speedy, " Sport in the Highlands and Lowlands of Scotland," p. 185. 

 2 Klein, "Grouse Disease," p. 6. 3 Macdonald, "Grouse Disease," p. 148. 



