MANAGEMENT OF FOWLS. 91 



The ' gapes ' are merely bronchitis. The worms are formed 

 in the stomach (?), and, if you put an ounce of unslaked lime 

 into eight ounces of water, and draw it off, adding to this some 

 salt, and put about a table-spoonful in the water the Chicks 

 drink, the insect is destroyed in the stomach with certainty ; 

 salt alone, regularly given, will have this effect. When the 

 insect gets from the stomach into the windpipe, there is a 

 difficulty. But spirits of turpentine are absorbed into the lungs, 

 and the breath discharges part of the spirits through the wind- 

 pipe, and thus also destroys the worm. The common works 

 on the treatment of Chicks when ill of the ' gapes ' are full of 

 irrational matter and perfect nonsense." T. F. 



It may be observed that, if the worms do get from the sto- 

 mach into the windpipe, it must be by travelling up the gullet, 

 entering the mouth, and then passing down the windpipe ; 

 that though salt does destroy intestinal worms, it must be ad- 

 ministered cautiously to Chickens, lest we poison the patient, 

 as well as the parasites ; and that the mere vapour of turpen- 

 tine will have little effect upon worms that are deeply imbedded 

 in mucus. 



We have now to notice another disgusting affliction to which 

 Fowls are liable, and which it would be more agreeable to pass 

 by altogether. 



" Some time ago I had a beautiful brood of Black Spanish 

 Chickens, and the day after they were hatched I happened to 

 take one in my hand, and was much struck by observing on 

 the top of its poll five or six large full-grown lice, evidently 

 caught from the mother. I then examined the whole brood, 

 and found them all similarly affected. Knowing that they 

 would not thrive until I had dislodged or destroyed the enemy, 

 the next day I attempted to pick them out ; but I found that, 

 having only been left one night, the whole poll was covered 

 with nits, and I could not get rid of them from their hanging 

 so tenaciously to the down. I procured some white precipitate 



