Royal Veterinary College. 
127 
cases the symptoms were at first ascribed to tuberculosis, and it is 
very probable that mistakes of this kind in diagnosis are not un- 
common. 
Great mortality among young pheasants was in one case found 
to be caused by the parasite of which a photograph is shown in fig. 5. 
This is a very minute parasite (a psorosperm), differing from the 
Coccidium oviforme of the rabbit only in point of size. Assuming 
that it has a life-history similar to the last-named organism, it is 
probable that the egg-shaped structures are passed out with the 
faeces of diseased birds, and then resolve themselves into spores, 
which are taken in with the food, and thus infect fresh individuals. 
Medicinal treatment in such a case would probably be impracticable 
or of little avail, and the course indicated is to take perfectly fresh 
ground for rearing the pheasants. 
Pneumonia caused by Worms. — In a few cases very serious mor- 
tality among sheep was found to be caused by the Strongylus 
ru/escens. The adult 
worms of this species 
are easily overlooked 
at the post-mortem, 
as they are consider- 
ably smaller than the 
well-known Strongy- 
lus Jilaria, and fre- 
quently are found ex- 
clusively in the very 
minute bronchi, or 
even in the air-cells 
of the lung. Here the 
female worms lay their 
eggs and the young 
embryos are hatched. 
The lung lesion takes 
the form of scattered 
greyish patches of ca- 
tarrhal pneumonia, and 
by placing a scraping from such a patch under the microscope a 
correct diagnosis can readily be made (see fig. 6). The disease 
attacks sheep of any age and at any season of the year. 
QUARTERLY REPORT OF THE CHEMICAL 
COMMITTEE. 
March, 1894. 
Since the publication of the last Quarterly Report nine cases have 
been brought to the notice of the Chemical Committee. Seven of 
these refer to linseed cakes, one to boiled bones, and one to a 
manure called “ Silicate manure.” In five of the seven cases con- 
