18 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER 



understand the cause or best mode of cure, both 

 of which are very simple. One recommends as 

 a preventive, the taking of the chickens early from 

 the hens and " scanting them in their lood."' A 

 fine way, indeed, for having fat chickens for ilie 

 table ! The French mode of starvation lor the 

 cure of disease is lounded in philosoj)hy, iDut a 

 deeper philosophy rejects it altogether. 



It has been a long time observed that wiien a 

 person settles a new place, it will be a year or two 

 after he gets a hen-houce before there will be 

 gapes among his chickens. I believe those who 

 have no hen-house or covered place lor hens to 

 roost or set in, are never troubled by the gapes. 

 Some have two hen houses, keeping one uncovered 

 alternately through the year, and so avoid the 

 gapes. II" you will examine a hen coming oil 

 with chickens that will have the gapes, you will 

 find her abounding in lice, which will be commu- 

 nicated to her chickens. Should you take these 

 chickens previously, and keep them from being 

 lousy, they will not have the gapes, and there will 

 be no necessily lor "scanting their food.'" It is 

 possible that cliickens already having the gapes 

 may have lile protracted and perhaps gei well by 

 "scanting their Ibod," on the principle practised 

 with patients, whose vitality is nearly extinct. 

 Lice are continually sucking the blood of their 

 victims. II you will cut open and examine a 

 chicken having the gapes, you will find one or 

 more long worms in its windpipe, obstructing its 

 breathing. These sometimes can be thrown out 

 by taking the chicken wiih its head from you, 

 raising it up at arms length, and bringing it down 

 very quick. 



If you will examine the blood of a gaping 

 chicken, you will find it pale and thin ; a sure 

 sign that it lacks iron. Under this belief more 

 than twenty years ago, and after havin</ tried 

 every known remedy to no purpose, I concluded 

 to try iron. I take rusty nails, iron turnings or 

 filings, put them into an unstopped bottle with good 

 vinegar, and set it in the sun, often shaking it till 

 it becomes black. I put a tab'e-spoonl'ul ol this 

 into the dough, which I feed, and with it cure or 

 prevent the gapes. 1 once gave it to a sick hen, 

 that was pale and so weak that she could neither 

 walk nor stand without tiilling forward or back, and 

 in a tew days she was well, and afterwards raised 

 six or more broods of chickens. Was not this 

 disorder the pip? 



I published the remedy eight or ten years ago, 

 and was informed that a certain gentleman, once 

 somewhat noted as a lawyer, and since as a 

 preacher, used it and said it killed every creature 

 that ate it. He must have got iron filings mixed 

 with brass, which is common in most mechanics' 

 shops. I have constantly used it, when necrilul, 

 and have never know any harm from it. I have 

 a hen-house, but my hens roost on the trees near 

 the house, and although 1 have seldom less than 

 thirty, and often more, and raise chickens, I have 

 not had an instance of gapes for several years. A 

 setting hen or other Ibwl is said to have fijver, 

 because their heat is greater than at any other 

 time ; but it is not lever. It lacks every charac- 

 teristic of lever, but increased heat. * * 



Farmers and laboring men, as well as others, 

 often suffer from tetter, a disorder, which is olten 

 attempted to be cured, and not always with euc- 

 ceea. The fee for trying to cure, and 1 suppose 



commonly with aquafortis, is said to be sometimes 

 $10. Perhaps a dozen years ago, 1 olien had an 

 itching humor on the backs and sides of my 

 fingers, which was quite troublesome. In two or 

 three weeks numerous small pin.ples would arise, 

 containing a fluid, which I would let out with a 

 sharp pointed knife. Then ihey would heal and 

 disappear lor tome weeks, when they would come 

 on again in the same way. After two or three 

 years ihe humor appeared lo quit the fingers and 

 come into the palms of my hands. They would 

 at first itch, and then in places appear as if scorch- 

 ed, and then the skin would crack. 1 soon learn- 

 ed it was letter, (or 1 had known nothing of the 

 disorder. On inquiry I found it was seldom cured, 

 and having no ten dollars to give as a lee, I deter- 

 mined to search for a remedy until I found one. I 

 believed that vegetables contained an aniidoie 

 for all disorders, and sought a remedy among 

 thern. I tried various things lor three years or 

 more before I found one. One day, walking in my 

 garden and passing some rue, 1 recollected hav- 

 ing heard that if a person handled rue, when 

 the dew was on, ii would blister. I look some 

 leaves and rubbed them in my hand, and instantly 

 the itching ceased. I pounded some and added 

 water to it ; and rubbed it on iny hands Irequent- 

 ly, and in about three weeks ihe tetter entirely 

 disappeared. But it shortly broke out again, and 

 I cured it again. This convinced me it was a 

 humor pervading the system. Alter a while it 

 appeared only in the spring and fall, and so conti- 

 nued to do for two or three years, when it ceased 

 altogether for several years, and I supposed I was 

 free i'rom ii, until a lew weeks ago, when it came 

 on as bad as ever; but I soon cleared it out. You 

 undoubtedly have iieard that " rue and rum" was 

 once a calholicon. Of course it can be used inter- 

 nally with saleiy. Those who wish to expel the 

 tetter virus totally from their systems, can drink 

 rue bitters. I have had no opportunity of trying 

 rue on tetters except on the hands, but suppose it 

 will be equally efficacious, wherever the disorder 

 may be. I have only to caution all who use it 

 externally, not to suffer the sun lo shine long upon 

 the parts wet with it, for several days ; for sun- 

 shine will produce inffammaiion. 



As it sometimes happens that children lose their 

 lives by eating Jimson (stramonium datura) and 

 as I did not know that any specific had been 

 discovered against it, I a few years ago tried a 

 sort of experiment wiih the view of finding one 

 out. Passing a barrel, which had stood too or 

 ihree days nearly full of rain waier, I saw thou- 

 sands of little wiggle-tailed animals. (A learned 

 man would have called tliem embryon or chi'ysalis 

 mosquitoes.) They daned to the bottom imme- 

 diately ; but soon rose with their mouths to the 

 surface, to enjoy ihe warm sun and the air. I 

 watched them several days, wishing to see them 

 shuffle off their " mortal coil" into mosquito- 

 hood. A full grown one would rise with its back 

 a little above ihe surlace, and after a short time its 

 shell would open at the lop and expand into a 

 complete boat. (Perhaps antiquarians trace keel 

 boats lo this origin.) Shortly a mosquito would 

 raise itself on its liny legs, and stand erect. After 

 a little it expanded and dried its wings, and then 

 flew and perched on the side of the barrel. Hav- 

 ing sufficiently satisfied my curiosity with Mos- 

 quitology, galfeerea a parcel of Jimson weed, 



