RED GROUSE 
in the Final Report of the Grouse Disease Inquiry, contains a fully illus- 
trated and detailed life-history of this avine coccidium. He is specially 
insistent that all infected corpses should be burned, not buried. 
Various preventive measures and modes of treatment are suggested, 
and though perhaps impossible to apply to grouse in their wild state, 
must prove most valuable in the case of all hand -reared game-birds, 
fowls, etc. 
From ten to fifteen grains of catechu dissolved in a gallon of water has 
been proved to be of the most definite service where the treatment of 
Coccidiosis is possible. Lime may possibly prove of great service when 
its effect on the heather -growth has been carefully investigated. Any 
conditions tending to raise the general vitality of the birds also make 
them more resistant to disease. An abundant supply of healthy young 
heather, by raising the general standard of health of the birds, is probably 
one of the best safeguards against this insidious disease. 
Among the host of writers who have from time to time advanced 
theories as to the possible cause or causes of the so-called “grouse dis- 
ease,” we may specially mention Dr Spencer Cobbold, Dr R. Farquharson, 
Mr W. Colquhoun, Dr D. G. F. Macdonald and Dr E. Klein. To Dr Cobbold 
is undoubtedly due the honour of having been the first to discover the 
true cause of the principal disease from which grouse suffer. During the 
great epidemic of 1872 and 1873 he examined large numbers of birds 
which had succumbed, and pointed out that death was in most cases due 
to the presence in vast numbers of the nematode worm, which he named 
Strongylus pergracilis. Subsequent writers strenuously opposed the views 
set forth in Dr Cobbold ’s pamphlet, and derided what was termed the 
parasite theory. Dr R. Farquharson, Mr Andrew Wilson and Dr E. Klein 
believed that “ the disease ” was typically an acute and infectious pneu- 
monia, probably due to over -stocking, adverse seasons, and inferior food 
caused by early frosts. Dr Klein believed that the true “ grouse disease ” 
was in every case an acute infectious pneumonia due to a specific bacillus ; 
but it has now been practically proved that he was mistaken, and that 
his deductions were founded on a misinterpretation of the post-mortem 
changes in the dead bird. Dr Seligman found that the bacillus which 
Dr Klein considered to be the specific cause of grouse pneumonia was, 
in fact, only to be discovered in any numbers some twelve or more hours 
after death, when colonies of the Bacillus colt had escaped from their 
proper sphere in the intestine and invaded the lung -tissue. His views 
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