" GROUSE DISEASE "PATHOLOGY 



293 



The presence in diseased birds of Strongyli in numbers far in excess of those 

 found in normal birds does not of course prove that they were the cause of the 

 disease, because it is conceivable that they may have multiplied as a consequence of 

 the disease. Nevertheless, taken in conjunction with the changes previously 

 described in the mucous membrane of the caecum, and the relation of the worms 

 thereto, it is exceedingly probable that the worms are really the cause of the disease. 



TABLE IV. SHOWING THE EELATIVE NUMBER OF STRONGYLI IN HEALTHY BIRDS 



AND IN THOSE BELIEVED TO BE SUFFERING FROM " GROUSE DISEASE." 



* One ca'cam only counted and the numbers doubled. 

 f These birds came from the same moor. 



The question arises whether the tapeworms, often present in enormous 

 numbers (PI. XLIL, Figs. 13 and 14) in the gut of the Grouse, act like 

 the Strongyli and increase the permeability of the intestinal wall to 

 bacteria. Tables V. and VI. show that there is little or no relation 

 between the presence of tapeworms in the gut and Bacillus coli in the ^ 

 organs, and that numerous tapeworms of either kind, Hymenolepis intestine. 



