176 



Sometimes a new patient will tell me that, in deference 

 to the directions of a former medical adviser, he has 

 left off" alcohol," but on cross-examination he almost 

 invariabl}^ pleads guilty to Claret or Burgundy. 



Now just as these substitutes for whiskey are 

 practically the same thing under another name, so 

 any substitute for egg would be, in at least a chemical 

 aspect, and in its effects on the digestive organs, just 

 as bad as the egg itself. Tlierefore in the one case as 

 in the other the answer is the same : — no substitute is 

 either required or admissible from a physiological 

 point of view; simply do away with what is doing 

 harm, and turn a deaf ear to those who would persuade 

 to the contrary, however plausible their pretensions 

 to argument may appear. 



Simplicity in all matters connected with bird 

 keeping has for long seemed to me to be the correct 

 key note, and one of the strongest reasons for my own 

 attitude has been that of the experts themselves. Their 

 multiplicity of directions, and the widely divergent 

 terms of their various obiter dicta, were in themselves 

 sufficient to arouse distrust in my mind ; and when I 

 came to reflect on the extravagant errors they vv^ere 

 (and are) guilty of in matters that I did know 

 something of, then my distrust of their opinions in 

 other directions graduallj^ became more and more 

 pronounced. This led to enquiry : enquiry confirmed 

 ray distrust and resulted in the abandonment of their 

 complicated methods and the consequent feeding 

 of my birds on the simplest possible lines. These 

 lines of course at that time embraced the use of egg 

 food. The very universality of its use (in at least 

 this country) misled me, until I had the good fortune to 

 become aware of its special power for harm.*' I then 

 merely left it out of my dietary table, and I can see, 



• Clarke. The Bird Plague, or Septic Fever, i8g8. 



