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Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, Volume 2, Issue 60, 24 February 1868, Page 48

Extraordinary Affair.— The Melbourne Age, of Thursday last, contains the followingA very strange occurrence, as a local journal reports, took place at Cockatoo about three weeks ago, and which deserves some.notice. The wife of a respectable resident at that place had been for some time in a weak state of health, and, on obtaining medical advice was pronounced to be enceinte ; but such, it appears, was not the case, and the medical man must evidently have been deceived by some similar symptoms, as the event, shows. At the time above-mentioned, she overstrained herself by lifting some heavybuckets of water from a cart, and feeling sick, went to -a neighbor’s, where she retched, and having brought up from her stomach, with great difficulty, a living creature, about nine inches in length, of a white color, and described as being halt as thick as her wrist, having no joints like a worm, but very active; so much so, that when touched it threw- up its tail like a scorpion, while the mouth was like that of a lizard’s. Several of the neigh: ors saw the reptile, and can vouch for the accuracy of the statement, and regret i 3 expressed that it was buried, instead of being sent to oue of the medical men for preservation. The poor women believes that another i f the same species is still .in her stomach, from the movements which are felt and the griping pain she experiences, and.probably had the creature heen properly examined by a scientific man; means might have been devised for the eradication of others of the sort. One gentleman (a doctor; on hearing of the affair, said that such cases were not without precedent, although rare, but that science was at fault as to the proper means to ? be used in them.

The Gapes in Poultry.—We call particular . attention to the subjoined facts with reference to- that very destructive affection termed the “ gapes,” which causes the death of so many young pheasants and other gallinaceous birds. In the Zoological Gardens the first brood of the Chinese eared-pheasants were put out upon the grass under their foster-mother, and every bird of them succumbed to this affliction after appearing to thrive remarkably well for some weeks. The second of the species, was placed in a dry aviary, where the. only water given to them had been subjected, to the process of boiling. Every bird throve, until when about the size of partridges, they too wpre put out upon the grass and .after a while one of them' was found to be suffering from the gapes, and was apparently about to die, so that it was doubtful whether it could be carried alive to the house of the superintendent. It recovered, however, on the application of a very simple remedy, and the next day was as strong and vigorous as ever. The plan adopted was' to take a suitable feather, strip it of its veins to near the tip, which was dipped in olive oil, and then, very finely pounded common salt, a little of whioh adhered to the oil; and it was forthwith , inserted into the windpipe through, the larynx, ‘and gently turned about.within.it- , The effect of was to detach the:worms immediately, which the bird immediately coughed up; together with a quantify of mucus, and it was completely relieved. There seems to be no doubt that the germs of toe so-called worms that infest the trachea are taken up with the w ater that toe birds sip, and that those, germs ate destroyed by boiling aeporprevention > and curd'of tbis troublesome'ana; 'destructive affection.—Land and Water.