44 
the serosa of the proventricle indicated a chronic neuritis 
and it may be that this is the mode of death. It would 
be quite possible for this worm to elaborate substances of 
a toxic nature (as does the fish tapeworm of man) which 
would act especially upon the nerves. This fact remains 
to be established. It is our belief at present that only a 
part of the cases listed as verminous died as a result of 
spiropteriasis; that the cases showing a few worms and 
not much tissue destruction died from intercurrent dis- 
eases but that others those so greatly emaciated, with 
occluded lumina, pressure upon the heart and destruc- 
tion of mucosa undoubtedly died as a result of the 
presence of the worms. 
The work has been prosecuted along three lines, with 
the following purposes : — 
I. To devise a practical method whereby infested 
birds might be discovered and isolated. 
II. To determine the life history of the worm. This 
is most important from a hygienic and prophylactic 
standpoint. The facts to be especially determined will 
be:— 
1. Mode of transmission from bird to bird. The 
value of this is apparent from a prophylactic standpoint. 
2. Time elapsing between ingestion of ovum and 
development of sexually mature female. As long as we 
have to rely upon finding ova in the droppings we will 
not be able to detect those birds with immature worms. 
If we can determine the time elapsing between ingestion 
of egg and maturity of female we will have determined 
the period of time during which to quarantine new 
arrivals, who, while not showing ova in droppings, may 
nevertheless harbor immature worms. Again, the deter- 
mination of this point would give us the intervals at which 
to re-examine the parrots which have been passed as 
healthy to the parrot house. In the absence of this 
knowledge we have run a certain risk. Future re-examina- 
