DISEASES OF POULTRY. 263 



of the membrane lining the tongue and palate, which 

 causes an obstruction to free inspiration, and makes 

 the poor sufferer gasp for breath ; the beak becomes 

 yellow at the base ; the tongue dry ; the plumage be- 

 comes ruffled, the bird mopes and pines, the appetite 

 gradually declines to extinction, and at last it dies, 

 completely worn out by fever and starvation. 



A cure may be effected by a low diet ; that is, in 

 the case of common fowls, by an allowance of fresh 

 vegetable food, as lettuce or parsley chopped and 

 mixed with potatoes and a little Indian or oat meal, 

 granting at the same time a plentiful supply of pure 

 water. Give, also, of castor oil, a tea-spoonful, or 

 thereabouts, according to the age and strength of the 

 fowl. Do not scrape the tongue, nor use rough modes 

 of cleaning it ; but apply a little borax, (sub-borate 

 of soda,) dissolved in pure water and tincture of myrrh, 

 by means of a camel-hair pencil, two or three times a- 

 day. 



When chickens are ill with the pip, Dr. Bechstein 

 recommends keeping the fowl in a warm place, and a 

 mixture of butter, pepper, garlic, and scraped horse 

 radish, to be given to it, without stripping the tongue ; 

 and, when the nostrils are obstructed, to pass a small 

 feather, dipped in oil, up them. M. Buc'hoz recom- 

 mends clean water. 



GAPES, OR INFLAMMATION OF THE WINDPIPE. 



THIS is a disease to which all our domestic gallina- 

 ceous birds are subject, and which often occasions 

 great mortality among them. Wet, ill-feeding, and, 

 ill- ventilated fowl house confinement, or a spot or 

 plot of ground tenanted year after year by fowls, with- 

 out attention to cleanliness, to renovation of the soil, 

 and a proper allowance of gravel, ashes, fresh vegeta- 

 bles, &c., are the proximate or remote causes of this, 

 as well as many other complaints of our domestic 

 fowls. At the same time, let it be borne in mind, 

 that the "gapes" is an epidemic disease. 



