280 DISEASES OF POULTRY. 



INFLAMMATION AND ULCERATION OF THE EYES. 



ONE of six of the twenty-three chickens which M. 

 Flourens shut up, so as to guard them against cold, was 

 stated in a preceeding page to have died of a disorder of 

 the eyes, and another to have lost an eye. The disor- 

 der consisted of small abscesses which were formed on 

 the cornea, containing a whitish sort of pus. Some- 

 times the inflammation extended to the whole globe of 

 the eye, the eyelids swelling to an enormous size, and 

 then accumulating under them a coagulable albuminous 

 matter, similar to the white of an egg. The cornea subse- 

 quently sloughed off, and the eye was consequently emp- 

 tied of its humors, and vision was destroyed forever, 

 causing in one blindness, and in another death, while in 

 a third, the abscess healed spontaneously. 



This disorder of the eyes was no doubt owing to the 

 concentrated vapors of the place where the fowls had 

 been shut up ; but it is also often produced in a manner 

 not less distressing, by cold, and particularly moist cold. 



"During the rains in the winter of 1826 and' 1827," 

 says M. Flourens, "the poultry yard which furnished my 

 observations was much below the level of the soil, and 

 constantly flooded with water. The greater part of 

 the hens, and particularly the young ones, were affected 

 with abscesses of the cornea, and inflammation of the 

 globe of the eye, to the degree that many of them lost 

 their eyes. The effect of the humidity and cold did not 

 stop here. Along with the abscesses of the cornea, enor- 

 mous tumors frequently appeared on the head ; these 

 tumors broke, and discharged most copiously a sort of 

 sanious pus ; and almost uniformly the fowl fell a victim 

 to the disorder. Many fowls were, at the same time, 

 seized with acute rheumatism and sciatica.*" 



RHEUMATISM. 



THIS affection is often caused by plunging the fowls 

 into cold water, for the hatching fever or for weaning 

 them from sitting. The treatment is the same as that 



* Annales des Sciences, Septembre, 1829. 



