" GROUSE DISEASE "PATHOLOGY 



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their length, their contents turned out, and their mucous membrane scraped. 

 All the material liable to contain Strongyli was thus collected. Small 

 quantities were shaken up with water in a large test-tube, and poured out 

 little by little into a Petri dish containing water. With suitable illumination 

 the Strongyli could be clearly seen and picked out with a mounted needle 

 and counted. When the contents of the caeca were drier than usual, and did 

 not readily break up when shaken with water, they were disintegrated by 

 rubbing between the flat surface of a rubber bung and the bottom of a Petri 

 dish. There can be no doubt that, while some Strongyli must have escaped 

 notice, this method gave a close approximation to the numbers which were 

 actually present quite close enough for the purposes of our Inquiry. In nearly 

 all cases the worms in the two caeca were separately counted, usually by different 

 observers. As may be seen, by reference to Table I. and PI. XL., Fig. 3, in 

 all but two birds (Nos. 57 and 67) approximately equal numbers were present in 

 the two caeca. We thought, therefore, that in our future investigations a 

 sufficiently accurate estimation of the number of Strongyli might be arrived at 

 by counting those present in one caecum and doubling the number found. 



TABLE I. SHOWING THE KESULTS or COUNTING THE STRONGYLI IN THE 



TWO C^ECA SEPARATELY. 



