272 DISEASES OF POULTRY. 



From these observation, M. Flourens concludes, with 

 respect to the effects of cold upon fowls, it follows, 



1. That in these creatures, cold* exercises a constant 

 and determined action upon the lungs. 



2. That this action is more sudden and more serious 

 in proportion as the creature is of tender age. 



3. That when cold does not produce a pulmonary 

 inflammation, acute and speedily fatal, it produces chronic 

 inflammation, which is in fact pulmonary phthisis. 



4. That warmth uniformly prevents the access of pul- 

 monary phthisis, and as uniformly suspends its progress 

 when this has commenced ; and sometimes even stops 

 it entirely, and effects a complete cure. 



5. That this disease, at whatever stage it may have 

 arrived, is never contagious. The chickens affected 

 with phthisis were not only the whole day with the 

 healthy chickens, but roosted at night in the same bas- 

 kets, without ever having experienced the slightest in- 

 fluence from a communication so intimate and pro- 

 longed. 



A long series of observations made upon man has 

 unquestionably proved that cold is the most terrible 

 scourge in producing chronic inflammations of the lungs ; 

 while heat, on the contrary, is the most efficacious rem- 

 edy. The experiments above detailed confirm, in a di- 

 rect and decisive manner, both the pernicious effects of 

 cold and the salutary effects of heat. In showing this 

 last evidence, accordingly, both where the source of the 

 the evil lies and where is the source of the benefit, the 

 results may not be entirely useless to humanity. 



Again, sudden very hot weather produced bad effects 

 on all his chickens, and it being impossible to doctor all, 

 the most advantageous plan, he judged, and the least 

 troublesome, was, to destroy all the sick ones and calcu- 

 late only on the strong, exercising judgment in the se- 

 lection ; for even when they are cured, they frequently 

 remain not only lean but voracious, destroying a great 

 quantity of food, and showing no signs of thrift tilf late 

 in autumn. When extensively-spreading disorders at- 

 tack the chickens of a yard, in this way unless shelter 



