566 HORSE, SWINE AND POULTRY DISEASES 



cylate of soda in the drinking water as above directed. As soon as 

 a bird is found to be affected, immediately place it in the quarantine 

 room as already provided. 



Treatment. It is doubtful whether medicinal treatment is 

 necessary if the aforegoing precautions are observed. However, it 

 is human nature to endeavor to save the life of a sick animal espe- 

 cially if it has a money value. Garlic or onion is one of the oldest 

 and best known remedies. This may be chopped up fine, mixed with 

 the food and given to the affected chicks. Montague gave infusions 

 of either garlic or rue for the birds to drink instead of water. He 

 was also successful in the use of powdered asafoetida with an equal 

 part of powdered gentian made into pills of about 8 grains, one be- 

 ing given per head every day. The most successful remedy found 

 by Theobald was the injection directly into the trachea with a small 

 medicine dropper of a few drops of an 8 per cent solution of salicylate 

 of soda or eucalyptus oil. Large numbers of chicks can be success- 

 fully treated by placing them in a closed box into which is blown a 

 mixture of one ounce of powdered chalk and half an ounce of finely 

 ground camphor, so that the birds must inhale it. Theobald found 

 this the safest and most successful remedy. (Del. B. 47.) 



Chicks on a Plank Floor. By experiment it is shown to be 

 possible to prevent the trouble completely by keeping chicks on a 

 board floor from the time they are hatched until they are large 

 enough to endure the attacks of the worms. The result of value to 

 the farmer obtained from this preliminary experiment is, that keep- 

 ing chicks, for several weeks after they hatch, on a plank floor will 

 prevent the gapes. (Ky. Station 10th Ann. Report.) 



BACILLARY WHITE DIARRHEA. 



The disease of young chicks commonly known as white diar- 

 rhea is caused by a specific organism Bacterium pullorum* This 

 bacillus was first isolated by Rettger in 1899. The mother hen is the 

 original source of infection, the specific organism being present in 

 the ovary. Consequently the organism is to be found in the yolks of 

 a certain proportion of the eggs produced by infected hens, and 

 chicks from such eggs have the disease when hatched. 



Normal chicks may contract the disease by taking the organism 

 into the digestive tract, as demonstrated by experiments with artifi- 

 cially infected food. Therefore, infected chicks probably transmit 

 the disease to normal chicks through the infected droppings. 



Infection through the food supply takes place at an early age, 

 in all probability within the first three or four days after hatching. 



Symptoms and Post-Mortem Appearances. As in many other 

 diseases, the symptoms may vary within certain limits in the indi- 



*Brief description of Bacterium pullorum. The organism is a long, slender 

 bacillus (.3-.5 x 1-2.5 micra) with slightly rounded ends. It usually occurs single, 

 chains of more than two bacilli being rarely found. It is non-motile, non-liquefy- 

 ing, non-chromogenic and facultatively anaerobic. In its microscopic appearances 

 it resembles the bacillus of typhoid fever. It is stained readily by the ordinary 

 basic anilin dyes. It does not stain by the Gram method; neither does it retain 

 its color when treated with dilute acetic and mineral acids. The organism does 

 not produce spores, or at least they have never been observed. 



