Grouse Disease. 



By ARTHUR E. SHIPLEY. 



Fellow and Tutor of Christ's College, Cambridge, 



and Reader in Zoology in the University. 



" The longer I live, the more I am convinced 

 that the apothecary is of more importance than 

 Seneca ; and that half the unhappiness in the 

 world proceeds from little stoppages, from a 

 duct choked up, from food pressing in the wrong 

 place, from a vext duodenum, or an agitated 

 pylorus." 



Thus that incorrigible amateur-physician 

 Sydney Smith wrote of our poor suffering 

 humanity, and thus we can as truly write of the 

 grouse. Little stoppages, food pressing in the 

 wrong place, a vext duodenum, and an agitated 

 blind-gut and there you have " Grouse 

 disease " ! 



At the onset I must, however, protest against 

 that fallacious and all-embracing expression. 

 It will be difficult to get rid of, for the average 

 keeper and sportsman is seldom clinically 

 inclined and he sees his birds diseased or 

 dead or dying and they are grouse and he is 

 content to put it all down to " grouse disease " 

 and to leave it at that. But grouse suffer and 



*jttepriiited from The Times. 



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