CHAPTER VIII 

 GROUSE DISEASE 



" 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.' 1 



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 they see their 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 



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