100 CANARIES 



paid to the diet. A light nutritive diet should at all 

 times be provided. Bread and milk, ground rice boiled 

 in milk, and sponge cake are very suitable. All hard 

 seed should be avoided. If any seed is given the sufferer, 

 it should be soaked for twenty-four hours. 



The remedies given should be administered through 

 the medium of the drinking water. To one wine-glassful 

 of water add ten drops of tincture of lobeha and the same 

 quantity of paregoric. A few drops of Hoffman's anodyne 

 may also be added. A few drops of tincture of conium 

 and glycerine, say ten of each, will often effect a cure in 

 the earlier stages of the disease. White blotting paper 

 saturated in a strong solution of nitre, and dried, will, 

 if burnt on a plate near the patient, so that it may inhale 

 the fumes, afford much relief. 



Should there be a wasting of flesh, as there often is when 

 the attack is the result of nervous debility, cod liver oil 

 and hypophosphites will be of much service. I have 

 found Fellows' compound syrup of hypophosphites to be 

 of the greatest service, especially when used in combination 

 with tasteless cod liver oil — a few drops of the latter on 

 the soft food, and thirty drops of Fellows' syrup mixed 

 with one wine-glassful of drinking water. 



Warmth is most essential to the successful treatment 

 of this disease. By warmth I don't mean that the room 

 must be very hot. A temperature of about sixty degrees 

 would be most suitable, and it should be kept as near this 

 point as possible. A fluctuating temperature is most 

 trying to the sufferer, more so than a low temperature. 

 All draughts should be kept away from the little patient, 

 and it should be allowed a good large cage. Exercise is 

 most beneficial, and a great aid in the successful treatment 

 of this disease. My opinion is that small cages are the 

 cause of a great many birds being affected with asthma. 



Atrophy. 



Atrophy is the correct medical term for the disease 

 which is more familiarly known amongst fanciers of 

 cage birds as " going light." It is a most insidious 

 disease, and one that often baffles the most experienced 

 fanciers. It is a gradual wasting away of the muscles 

 of the body. A bird affected with it will be found to be 



