Mar. 2, 1908.] Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. 221 



through the system, terminating in the clocie, just inside the vent. The 

 intestines (two) are, of course, part of the digestive system. The small one 

 runs from the gizzard to the large intestine. It contains the substance 

 which aids digestion, thus completing the assimilation of the food, the 

 portion retained going to nourish the system, the waste material passing on 

 to the large intestine, then conveyed to the clocie, and ejected as dropjjings. 



Diarrhcea, or looseness of the bowels, in fowls is brought on by some 

 irritating matter, such as sour and unwholesome food or exposure, cold, wet 

 weather, and other causes. 



The symptoms are excessive discharge from the bowels. 



Diarrho3a is responsible for very great mortality among chickens, some 

 poultry-keepers losing a greater number from this cause than from any other 

 chicken ailment. 



In Auierica of late years a chicken disease, termed " White Diarrhoea," 

 has become prevalent, and has baflfled the best poultry doctors in that 

 country. It is, however, confined to incubator-hatched chickens, not due to 

 that cause, hut to something not yet understood in aitificial rearing ; and, as 

 the chicks are only a week or two old when attacked, it is quite conceivable 

 the ditticulty in curing intestinal disarrangements at such an early age. But 

 even in this country, where artificial incubation is less general than in 

 America, the trouble is experienced, while those hen-hatched and reared are 

 sometimes victims. 



The existence of diarrhciea in adult fowls is usually due to the presence of 

 some foreign, fetid, or irritant matter in the intestines, and to get rid of that 

 is to usually cure the complaint. The first treatment should be a teaspoonful 

 of salad oil, sweet oil, or a rather smaller quantity of castor-oil, or a dose, 

 about 25 grains, of Epsom salt?. Boiled rice, into which some powdered 

 chalk has been mixed, should be given a few hours after the purgative, and, 

 if not effective, pills made of 4 grains of prepared chalk, 4 grains of rhubarb, 

 and 1 grain of opium should be given. 



L°wis Wright quotes 5 grains chalk, 5 grains rhubarb, and 3 grains 

 cayenne — a pill given morning and night. 



Rhubarb pills can be purchased at any chemist's, which will often be 

 effective in arresting the complaint. 



I have cured a number of cases with pills made of powdered chalk and 

 lard only. 



Camphorated spirits is another useful remedy. The sinqjlest way is to 

 make a pill of ordinary bread, and work about 10 drops of the spirit into 

 it. A little alum in the drinking water is also useful. 



Sometimes a case of simple diarrhfea may have developed into dysentery 

 before the poultry-keeper is aware of any ailment. In such cases the odds 

 are against the birds, the best remedies to try being a dose of castor-oil 

 followed by 5 drops of laudanum every three hours. 



Dr. CoUis Brown's chlorodyne, in small doses, has also proved effective. 



What is known as chalky or white diarrhrea in young chickenSj, has 

 baffled the most prominent investigators in America. Dr. Woodroff Hill, 



