THE COJIMON FOWL. 67 



lioldiiig the beak open, while the operator 

 introduces the tube into the throat. Nor is 

 this the only barbarity to which fowls on the 

 Continent are subjected, sometimes even in 

 England. But we shall not enter into details 

 of cruelty. 



Fowls are subject to various diseases, most 

 of them ai'ising from damp, cold, and improper 

 food. Severe catarrhal affections, swelled 

 heads, dropsy of the limbs, rheumatism, or 

 the pip, or thrush, are among the number. 

 The latter is to be cured by washing the tongue 

 and mouth with borax dissolved in tincture of 

 myrrh and water. 



There is one disease called the gapes, to 

 \\hich domestic poultry, and also pheasants 

 and partridges, are subject, and which often 

 causes great mortality. Perhaps in the first 

 instance it arises from a cold or a croupy or 

 catarrhal affection, but in every case several 

 parasitic worms of a singular form and structure 

 will be found lodged in the windpipe, the 

 removal of which (and it can be sometimes 

 done by means of a feather introduced into the 

 windpipe and turned round,) is requisite to 

 save the sufferer. It may be that these worms 

 are the sole cause of the disease. One mode 



