POULTRY PATIENTS. 317 



the close of summer, and it is more prevalent in the ex- 

 treme South because the warm season is there longer con- 

 tinued; in other words, the superinducing cause of this 

 disease is exposure — not to cold, but to heat. It rarely if 

 ever attacks chickens over a year old, but prefers the young 

 ones of one to three months old, who are "always on the 

 go" out in the sun, and whose little frames have not yet be- 

 come inured to exposure. It never attacks them in cold 

 weather, and usually only during the summer, though some- 

 times in early spring or fall, if the season is very warm. 



The first symptoms of "sore-head," or erysipelas, as it 

 should be termed to avoid confusion, since erysipelas it is, 

 and nothing else, is dullness and the appearance of small 

 pimples about the head and face ; these increase and be- 

 come pustules, which exude a serous fluid ; the head and 

 eyes swell, the mouth, tongue and comb become covered 

 with pustules, discharging an offensive matter. 



Now erysipelas, as every one knows, is an ugly disease, 

 especially when it attacks the head ; if taken in time, how- 

 ever, it can be usually conquered. Place the bird at once 

 in a clean, sheltered coop, in as cool a place as possible ; 

 administer a tablespoonful of castor oil each day until it 

 begins to improve ; give green and soft food, mixing a tea- 

 spoonful of flour of sulphur with the latter, daily, for a 

 week or ten days, and let its drink be one part of Douglass' 

 Mixture to two of water. Keep the sores moist with lard 

 and sulphur, well rubbed in. If the sulphur seems to irri- 

 tate, stop using it and substitute a neutral solution of car- 

 bolate of lime and sulphate of magnesia. 



To the discovery of the true name, cause, and remedy of 

 the so-called "sore-head," or "warts," the writer has devoted 

 much time, study, and observation, and now, for the first 

 time, throws open to the Florida public the result of sev- 

 eral years of careful experiment. 



