September 19, 1872. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



241 



the prizes. There were about fifty pens of poultry, and not 

 more than half that number of Pigeons, and about the like of 

 Rabbits, "which latter seemed to please the boys especially. An 

 extra prize was given for the best brace of chickens trussed for 

 the spit, and for ducklings as well, but they only brought two 

 entries each. Some good Black Hamburghs were shown, and a 

 pah- of good Runts. 



My readers will readily understand that it was not so much 

 the Show as the place and the people that were worth seeing 

 — the quaint pretty garden, the grass terraces, the gay flowers, 

 the dark evergreens, and the bright dresses of the ladies, cer- 

 tainly some of the prettiest slender maidens and stately-looking 

 comely matrons that could be seen anywhere. The old borough 

 of Malmesbury and its neighbourhood is certainly rich in beauty. 

 The benefit of such shows as the one I have endeavoured to 

 describe must be great. They are harmless ; there is little 

 drinking, much sociality of a good sort, and a refined taste is 

 created or strengthened. One final remark : Babies and tobacco 

 are out of place in a flower tent. My ears and nose were at 

 Malmesbury offended by both. I wish at all such shows neither 

 ■could be allowed admittance, or, if the pipe be produced, the 

 offender be gently told to return it to his pocket. At Malmes- 

 bury, while I was revelling in the delicate scent of the Roses, a 

 •fellow thrust his tobacco stench under my nose. Smoking, like 

 all selfish gratifications, should be enjoyed alone, or with those 

 only who have a like taste. Railways now properly have their 

 smoking carriages, so in travelling the annoyance has ceased, 

 and it should not be tolerated in a flower tent. Babies are also 

 best at home with their nurses ormothers. — Wiltshire Rectob 



CANAKY AILMENTS.— No. 1. 

 I went to see how it was getting on. I had known it from 

 its birth, and had watched it during the various stages of its 

 growth. Before its feathers were fully developed to the naked 

 *eye I had examined it with a powerful glass and pronounced it 

 marked on each wing, each eye, and each side of the tail, and 

 such it proved to be. "When I last saw it alive it was a month 

 old, fully feathered, strong, lusty, and giving promise of becom- 

 ing a very high-class bird — not exactly a fitting successor to 

 Black-eyed Susan, who departed this life about a month ago 

 full of years, honours, and asthma, but a mule winch would 

 require some beating. True, I had heard of another celebrity, 

 a. Jonque, marked on each eye only, but my affections were 

 placed on the subject of this memoir. Well, I went to see how 

 it was getting on, for I had heard it was sick. When I entered 

 the house there was a quiet and a gloom about the place which 

 told me some calamity had happened, and I was simply motioned 

 up-stairs in silence, in the direction of the bird-room, where I 

 found him — I wo'n't say who — him sitting in silent misery, 

 seeking consolation in the society of a " churchwarden." I did 

 not speak, for I knew his great heart was broken, but waited 

 patiently till he told me in faltering accents that "it died last 

 Thursday." "Died? The poor thing was murdered,' that's 

 what it was. Murdered I call it. I suppose you dosed it with 

 castor oil ? Somebody I know has a deal to answer for." And 

 then I became aware there was a second visitor, and had also a 

 pretty good idea who " somebody " was. For an hour I sat and 

 listened to a lecture on homoeopathy; and though my allegiance 

 to allopathy was not one whit shaken, yet what my friend 

 advanced sounded so much like sense, that I asked him to give 

 me a short course of lectures on homoeopathy as applied to the 

 treatment of bird diseases, and the result is as under. — W. A. 

 Blakston. 



It is quite needless for me to attempt here a dissertation on 

 homoeopathy, for its great principles must be learned from abler 

 sources than the present. For the " fancy, " however, suffice it 

 to say, that the medicines being given in minute doses are quite 

 safe, and will only affect a bird when the remedy given is 

 Tiomceopathie to the disease intended to be cured. It is, of 

 course, advisable in all cases to put a diseased bird into 

 "hospital," but from want of space I have frequently had to 

 treat a bird whilst along with healthy ones, and always with 

 benefit to the sufferer, and without any ill-effect to the others. 

 Fanciers, therefore, have nothing to dread from giving a wrong 

 remedy, which, indeed, is an error all beginners are liable to, 

 for nothing but the closest attention will enable one to arrive at 

 a correct diagnosis and cause of a disease ; and one should never 

 despair if a remedy does not work as miraculously as he would 

 wish, for I can assure him from my own personal experience, 

 that with perseverance and careful thought success under this 

 treatment is certain. 



Before going further I may as well say that you are perfectly 

 at liberty to make any use you like of the contents of this com- 

 munication, for I should only be too glad to be the humble 

 means of alleviating in the slightest degree the sufferings to 

 which our little feathered friends must be subjected as long as 

 the lamentable ignorance and quackery of the old system, 



which has hitherto been and is continually being, palmed upon 

 fanciers are allowed to exist. 



The remedies hereinafter mentioned are in tinctures of the 

 third dilution, and may be obtained from any homoeopathic 

 chemist in sixpenny phials. I shall take the diseases in the 

 order in which they are most likely to occur from infancy 

 upwards. 



Indigestion. — This disease is commonly known as rupture or 

 surfeit, and is, I believe, the cause of the great majority of the 

 fatalities which so many breeders have experienced of late years. 

 I have treated birds thus afflicted at the early age of fourteen to 

 twenty-one days ; but the period at which they are most liable 

 to contract it is either shortly before or shortly after they can 

 shell seed. When first attacked they look rather thick, dim 

 about the eyes, and then, to use a fancy term, turn " soft," with 

 their feathers all coarse and ruffled, and on blowing them up 

 more or less inflammation and distension of the abdomen are 

 observable. In the case of nestlings, the last two symptoms are 

 not such safe guides, for they are generally a shade rosy and 

 full. I therefore look principally to their droppings, which, 

 when the birds are affected, gradually lose shape, and turn 

 lighter and brighter in colour, in very, inflammatory cases almost 

 approaching the colour of egg-yolk, and are sometimes very 

 watery, and more or less mixed with a chalky mucus or slime. 



The causes of this disease are — too much green' food, rape or 

 hempseed, stale egg, impure water, and too much soft food. In 

 the case of nestlings, they can only get too much soft food when 

 fed occasionally by hand, so care should always be taken not to 

 distend their crops overmuch. 



The remedies are — aconite, Pulsatilla, china, and arsenicum. 

 The first is to allay inflammatory or febrile symptoms ; the 

 second is for defective digestion ; the third for looseness of the 

 bowels ; and the fourth is required when the purging is more 

 severe, and there is greater inflammation of the abdomen. 



I also give a spare diet, and of the kind hereafter mentioned. 

 My mode of administering the medicines is as follows : — 



Par nestlings, I take a teaspoonful of egg and bread or biscuit 

 previously mixed, a teaspoonful of warm water, to which I add 

 one drop of aconite and one drop of one of the other medicines 

 according to the symptoms, then mix all together and give to 

 the birds with a quill or match four or five times a-day, as in 

 ordinary hand-feeding. 



For birds which can feed themselves and are under six weeks 

 old, I mix the remedies with their soft food in the same manner, 

 and also put one or two drops into their water-fountains accord- 

 ing to the size of the latter ; after six weeks old putting it in 

 their water is sufficient. Whenever any beneficial effect is 

 observable after administering the remedies, it is advisable in 

 all cases to diminish the quantity, and continue to do so gradu- 

 ally until there is complete convalescence. 



t have never had a single failure under this treatment, and I 

 am quite certain that if attention is given to the first symptoms 

 of this disease the two first-named remedies will nearly always 

 effect a cure in an exceedingly short time. 



If this disease is neglected the result will be a severe form of 

 diarrhcea, or, perhaps, dysentery and death. 



Diet. — The following is the diet I give my birds (during me- 

 dicinal treatment, of course in small quantities), and if it were 

 generally adopted by fanciers, and - cleanliness always strictly 

 observed, I think this disease would scarcely ever be contracted. 

 For nestlings, give the parents only a small quantity of scalded 

 rape seed with their Canary seed, green food in moderation, and 

 egg and pounded biscuit, which latter should in all cases be 

 quite fresh. 



White bread a few days old is, I believe, often given with the 

 egg, and is, perhaps, very good ; but as there is always some 

 danger of its fermenting in the stomachs of the birds, I prefer 

 biscuits, and generally use milk or water ones, which I pound 

 in a small mortar, and use in the proportion of two to one egg. 

 I frequently add a small teaspoonful of oatmeal and sugar to 

 make the whole more easy of digestion. Some fanciers use 

 baked flour instead of either bread or biscuits, but I do not 

 approve of it, as it makes the mixture rather too dry, and alone 

 is indigestible. It may, perhaps, not be generally known to the 

 fancy, that the finer the quality of flour the less value it is as an 

 article of diet, it being almost entirely deprived of those nu- 

 tritive salts which are necessary to render the starch, which it 

 to a great extent consists of, available for nutrition. It is to 

 make up for this deficiency that I add a little oatmeal to my egg 

 and biscuit. I have fed nestlings on baked flour and egg, but 

 always found that much of the flour came through them un- 

 digested, thus showing the want of the natural salts. 



After the birds are out of the nest, and can feed themselves, 

 they should have neither rape seed nor green food, and soft food 

 only in moderate quantities, and more pounded biscuit should 

 be gradually added to their egg as they get on to seed, so that 

 the change from soft to hard food may not be too abrupt. After 

 they can feed sufficiently on Canary seed, egg, which in quantity 

 would cover a shilling per bird per day, is all they require. 

 They should have fresh water every morning, as it is soon 



