90 ENTOZOA. 



small land molluscs ; but I tliink it more likely tliat they either 

 enter the substance of vegetable matters, or bury themselves in 

 the soil at a short distance from the surface. 



It remains for me only further to notice the various methods 

 which may be adopted with the view, on the one hand, of checking 

 the destructive influences of this parasite, and, on the other, of 

 limiting its abundance : — 



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 then twisted round a few times and withdrawn, when it will usually 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 satis- 

 factory, 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 salt for this purpose, 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. Mon- 

 tagu 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 

 garhc instead of plain water to drink, and cliiefly hemp seed, inde- 

 pendent of the green vegetables which the grass plot of the 

 menagerie afforded, recovered the others in a very short time." 



