PARASITIC DISEASE. 639 



We find, on examining the lungs of sheep at the slaughter- 

 house, that almost all in the first year of their lives have 

 indications of deposit in the lungs at one time supposed to 

 be tubercular, but which we now know is due to parasitic 

 productions. 



Strongyli are not easily killed. Ercolani has found them 

 living thirty days after exposure to air. They were dried 

 up, but on being moistened with water, moved and gave 

 other signs of life. 



Treatment. The same principles must guide us in treat- 

 ing this disease in animals, and Dr Spencer Cobbold has 

 stated the methods to be adopted in the gapes of birds as 

 follows : 



" First, When the worm has taken up its abode in the trachea of 

 fowls and other domesticated birds, the simplest plan consists, as Dr 

 Wiesenthal long ago pointed out, in stripping a feather from the tube 

 to near the narrow end of the shaft, leaving only a few uninjured webs 

 at the tip. The bird being secured, the webbed extremity 'of the 

 feather is introduced into the windpipe. It is then twisted round a 

 few times and withdrawn, when it will usually happen that several of 

 the worms are found attached. In some instances this plan entirely 

 succeeds. But it is not altogether satisfactory, as it occasionally fails 

 to dislodge all the occupants. 



" Secondly, The above method is rendered more effectual when the 

 feather is previously steeped in some medicated solution which will 

 destroy the worms. Mr Bartlett, superintendent of the Zoological 

 Society's Gardens, employs for this purpose salt, or a weak infusion of 

 tobacco ; and he informs me that the simple application of turpentine 

 to the throat externally is sufficient to kill the worms. To this plan, 

 however, there is the objection that, unless much care be taken, the 

 bird itself may be injuriously affected by the drugs employed. 



" Thirdly, The mode of treatment recommended by Mr Montagu 

 appears worthy of mention, as it proved successful in his hands, although 

 the infested birds were old partridges.' One of his birds had died from 

 suffocation; but he tells us that 'change of food and change of place, 

 together with the infusion of rue and garlic instead of plain water to 

 drink, and chiefly hempseed, independent of the green vegetables which 



