112 POULTRY PATHOLOGY 



It is this piece of machinery that the poultry husbandman is operating 

 when he is feeding for eggs or breeding to Standard. It is this machine 

 from which the commercial poultryman is planning to turn out a supply of 

 attractive and toothsome table fowl to catch the eye and tickle the palate 

 of the epicure. Hygiene proposes to keep this machine in order, oil all 

 its parts, keep it in repair, tell you how, in the best possible manner, to 

 obtain a new one, lacking all the defects of the old one, possessing features 

 that will place it far away and ahead of the old. It is, in reality, Hygiene 

 that will tell you that your machine is sure to snap and go to pieces if you 

 work it too hard and can explain to you the rationale of the break- 

 down. Poultry Pathology, as a branch of poultry hygiene will 

 tell you why your 250-egg hen dies before she reaches that fascinat- 

 ing number. It is poultry pathology that explains to you that the 

 200-egg hen is a monstrosity, an abnormality, and as such is far more 

 susceptible to disease than the average hen of much lower egg laying 

 ability. Not only is this hen peculiarly subject to disease but all the hens 

 that have, as we might say, formed stepping stones up to this much sought- 

 after product of breeding and commercial enterprise are likewise markedly 

 susceptible to disease because of the abnormal regime to which they have 

 been exposed. 



An enterprising poultrywoman brought to the writer a dead hen for 

 autopsy. Examination revealed an hypertrophied ovary, marked conges- 

 tion and at the same time extreme thinness of the walls of the egg tube. 

 Through this tube an egg had ruptured into the abdominal cavity. There 

 were no other lesions. To my inquiry concerning the use of "forcing" 

 foods, she replied, "I am breeding and feeding my White Leghorns for eggs; 

 I obtain forty cents per dozen all the year round; I could sell one hundred 

 dozen as easily as I now sell fifty dozen. I can afford to lose one of these 

 hens every few months (that had been the record) and keep on forcing. 

 Here was poultry husbandry with Hygiene in the background, that is to 

 say, breeding, feeding and marketing in defiance of Hygiene. It is true, 

 there was a strong appreciation of Hygiene for its general purpose; that 

 woman desired to guard against an attack on her flock by an infectious 

 disease, and she wisely brought the dead bird to a pathologist for investiga- 

 tion. But when it came to a question of the pathology of egg production 

 she allowed the commercial element to overbalance all other consider- 

 ations. A splendid business capacity suggested that it was better 

 to lose four birds a year from diseased ovaries and oviducts due to excessive 

 functioning than to lose, by cutting out the forcing foods, the large egg 

 production with its generous receipts. As stated above, for her, poultry 



