RKPORT ON THE GROUSE DISEASE. 331 



I examined it, the day after, it was in a fairly good condition of 

 preservation. The small and large intestines showed a good deal 

 of congestion, the mesenterj^' was inflamed, and there was a small 

 quantity of fluid sanguineous exudation in the peritoneal cavity. 

 The kidney showed great congestion, so did the lung; the liver 

 was much congested, and of a greenish black colour. In the 

 small intestine were numerous taeniae. At one of the congested 

 points of the small intestine, the wall of the intestine was very 

 much thinned out and almost perforated. 



From these observations it follows that all birds examined 

 showed, as the most constant anatomical symptoms, the conges- 

 tion of soiiTB parts of the intestines, the great congestion and 

 discoloration of the liver and kidney, and in some cases also of 

 the lung. In some cases the peritoneum was inflamed, and there 

 was more or less inflammatory exudation in the peritoneal cavit3^ 

 Extravasation of blood from the kidney was observed in one bird 

 that had died spontaneously of the disease. In all the birds 

 taeniae {Tania calva) were present in the small intestine, in some 

 in great numbers ; in one bird that died spontaneously only a few 

 examples were noticed. 



Unmistakable perforation of the intestine was noticed in one 

 bird that had died spontaneously of the disease (from Flat Moors), 

 and in another bird (from Broughton), also dead spontaneously, 

 the intestine was on the point of perforation. The perforations 

 noticed in some of the birds that were shot must be left out 

 of consideration, since the nature of the perforation was not 

 incompatible with having been caused by shot.* 



Comparing these observations with those of previous in- 

 vestigators, we find, then, that they harmonise to a great extent 

 with those recorded by Dr. Andrew Wilson in the 'Edinburgh 

 Medical Journal,' and quoted by Mr. D. G. F. Macdonald in his 

 book on ' Grouse Disease,' p. 145. Mr. Wilson noticed in the 

 birds dissected by him a markedly congested state of the digestive 



* The presence of tsenife, whole and short pieces, found in some of the 

 bh-ds examined by me is easily accounted for by remembering tliat if a 

 perforation of the small intestine takes place (by disease, as in one of my 

 birds, or by shot, as was most probably the case in several of the birds 

 examined"), the toenise present in the intestine, by their known power of 

 rapid contraction, would be able to pass out into the peritoneal cavity ; this 

 need not take more than some mimites. 



