CHAPTER XXVI. 



DISEASES, VICES, AND VERMIN. 



WHEN a fowl becomes ill, the best cure in very many cases 

 is to kill it. Some such deaths are both necessary and 

 beneficial ; for Nature has picked out the very birds 

 which you ought, if you knew their real state and con- 

 stitution, to discard ; and if you manage to save them 

 and continue to breed from them, you may probably 

 perpetuate their weakness. This consideration is never to 

 be forgotten. Only in trivial ailments, or in the case of 

 valuable birds probably infected from outside, do we recom- 

 mend much attempt at a cure, and even then only when 

 the disease is so defined that the treatment is fairly certain. 

 As this work is intended to be strictly practical, it is only 

 for such well-defined complaints we shall prescribe. 



Besides actual diseases, there are certain natural 

 ailments, as they may be called, to which all fowls may 

 be subject, and which demand treatment. And it is 

 convenient also to collect into this chapter certain other 

 adverse agents which the poultry-keeper may have to 

 contend with. 



For actual diseases, it is well in all large establishments 

 to have a weather-tight and well-ventilated house kept as a 

 hospital, in which healthy fowls should never be placed. 

 Roup, in particular, is so contagious that even a recovered 

 bird should be kept by itself for a few days before being 

 restored to its companions. 



Apoplexy occurs from over-feeding, and can seldom be 

 treated in time to be of service. If the fowl, however, 

 although insensible, does not appear actually dead, the wing 

 may be lifted, and a large vein which will be seen under- 

 neath freely opened, after which hold the bird's head under 



