150 LL55ON5 IN POULTRY KEEPING 5LCOND SERIES. 



LESSON XIX. 



First Treatment of Sick Fowls. 



FOWLS are subject to a great many diseases. Quite all the more common diseases of men 

 have their counterparts in poultry diseases. This fact is more generally recognized now 

 than even a few years ago. It does not seem to be definitely established that diseases of 

 like symptoms are identical in fowls, animals, and human beings. In the few cases 

 in which we have reports of comparative studies of germ diseases of like nature in fowls and 

 human beings, the conclusion reached has been that the germs were not the same. Some 

 scientists, following the theory of development by evolution, suppose that as men, animals, and 

 fowls were originally of one stock, so were the germs which produce certain diseases in them, 

 but that many generations of life in a particular kind of organism, as a fowl, animal, or man, 

 has especially adapted the germ to development in that organism and unfitted it for develop- 

 ment in organisms of the other classes, and that while it is not impossible for a disease to be 

 developed in any organism as a result of the introduction of the peculiar germ of another class 

 of organisms, that result is extremely rare, and authorities are not at all agreed on the subject. 

 The practical value to the poultryman of a knowledge of this general fact of the similarity of 

 human and poultry diseases is that it gives him a more reasonable attitude toward the diseases 

 of poultry, and also enables him to apply such knowledge of the treatment of human beings 

 presenting certain symptoms as he may have to the treatment of similar symptoms or condi- 

 tions as they appear in his flock. There is no need of any poultry keeper, however inexperi- 

 enced, standing in the presence of any of the poultry diseases most likely to occur in his flock 

 helpless until he can get explicit directions from some poultry keeper or supposed expert on 

 poultry diseases as to how to treat such cases, unless he is as inexperienced in the treatment of 

 human ills as in those of poultry. Very few people who have arrived at an age, whatever that 

 age may be in any case, when they can take the small responsibility of caring for a flock of 

 fowls have not some knowledge of the treatment of the minor and more common human ail- 

 ments, colds, indigestion, diarrhea, etc., for which there are many simple treatments in use. 

 This knowledge can be applied to the treatment of ailing fowls, perhaps not always with the 

 best results, but still as much better than doing nothing until specific directions can be obtained. 

 A sick person shows that he is not in good physical condition in a variety of ways, and fir>t 

 of all in extreme irritableness or in a reluctance to follow the every day routine of his life. 

 The mature person whose sense of responsibilities impels him to continue his work when 

 nature honestly rebels against it, is apt to be cross. With children unusual restlessness or 

 unusual inactivity occur according to the nature of the trouble and the disposition of the child. 

 With fowls, so much lower in grade of organization, and comparatively so deficient in brain 

 and nerve force disease almost invariably means inactivity, separation as far as possible from 

 the remainder of the flock, and a general attitude of listlessness or distress. Occasionally 

 instances of the other manifestation of ill condition are seen, but they are rare. 



Now the first step in the treatment of any trouble that has reached the stage where the 

 fowl shows a desire for quiet and seclusion, is to furnish those conditions. It may be noted, 

 further, that fowls (I will not continue the comparison between fowls and humans, for as I 

 proceed discussing the case for fowls, the reader whose attention has now been fixed on the 



