The Health of the Hen. 103 



less imperfect disinfecting preparations. These often succeed. While 

 diphtheretic roup in fowls seems from recent investigation to be an entirely 

 different disease from diphtheria in man, the operator should take no 

 chances and disinfect his hands and operating tools in two per cent carbolic 

 acid solution after a thorough scrubbing in soap and water. Above all, 

 should there be no carrying of buckets, brooms or hoes from the quaran- 

 tine hospital to other houses. It is better to provide a pair of rubbers 

 for use in the quarantine house and yard so as to prevent tracking infec- 

 tion from house to house. 



CHOLERA.— The cholera type of diseases, or those in which the germs 

 enter the system through the intestinal tract and are disseminated through 

 the droppings, comprise three diseases perhaps more, all due to different 

 germs. They should be handled when an outbreak occurs much the same 

 as the roup diseases. However, in these diseases, especially the typhoidal 

 forms, there is more danger from infection contaminating the ground, and 

 great care should be taken with infected ground either by abandonment or 

 by intensive cultivation. Liming when necessary to correct acidity, spading 

 and cultivation will enable the nitrifying bacteria to grow which in warm 

 seasons will destroy the disease making germs. The author has frequently 

 collected infected fowls carried them for some miles placed them in a coop 

 with board floor, believing that they would die only to have them improve 

 under the changed surroundings. Little is known about the length of time 

 either of this class of diseases may live in the ground or in the animal. If 

 remedies are given it should be remembered that any alkalies as carbonate 

 of soda, Epson or Glauber salts create inflammation of the intestine and 

 permit germs to enter the system more readily. The acid stops diarrhoeas 

 when present and may possibly be helpful. The presence of the virulent 

 communicable disease of the cholera type is ascertained by droopiness of 

 the fowls and subsequent death. Oftentimes the droopiness passes unob- 

 served. Diseases produced by errors of feeding generally take some timt 

 to develop unless something acting like a poison is taken, and then a large 

 number are suddenly taken ; some die and the others recover. The various 

 forms of this class of disease cannot easily be told apart in the hen yard. 

 One of them, infectious leuksemia. causes death within three or four days, 

 with scarcely 12 hours droopiness and without any easily ascertainable 

 symptoms. Fowl cholera lasts from two to three weeks, is accompanied by 

 droopiness and may or may not be accompanied by diarrhoea. Diarrhoea 

 in fowls is indicated by frequent evacautations of soft greenish, brownish 

 or yellowish stools. The white watery stool sometimes seen is not indica- 

 tive of diarrhoea, but of lack of intestinal evacuations. It consists of the 

 lime products secreted by the kidneys and is usually in excess in fevers. 

 The disease called "going light" in fowls may arise from chronic forms 

 of cholera, from starvation produced by mechanical derangements of the 



