314 Maine; agriculturai, experiment station. 1913. 



III. ON THE ABILITY OF CHICKENS TO DIGEST 

 SMALT PIECES OF ALUMINUM.^ 



By Maynie R. Curtis. 



It is a matter of common observation that chicks will peck at, 

 and sometimes swallow, small pieces of bright metal. If these 

 have sharp points or corners, they may puncture the wall of 

 the alimentary tract allowing the escape oi some of the con- 

 tents into the body cavity, and may thus indirectly cause peri- 

 tonitis. 



Among the several cases of peritonitis in the Maine Agricul- 

 tural Experiment Station flock in the last five years four have 

 been observed where at autopsy a sharp metal article was found 

 still protruding from the puncture it had made in the gizzard 

 wall. The articles were a small nail, a tack, a pin and a piece 

 of steel watch spring. In these cases it was the sharpness of 

 the metal which caused the difficulty. However, on account of 

 the interposition of the gizzard a bird is less able to pass out a 

 large indigestible article than is an animal which masticates its 

 food. Such an article which is toO' large to pass through must 

 cither remain in the gizzard or must be ground up or dissolved 

 by the digestive fluids. 



The purpose of the present note is to record some observa- 

 tions on the fate of certain pieces of metal which when swal- 

 lowed by chickens cause no disturbance in their physiological 

 processes. The pieces of metal were aluminum leg bands. They 

 were practically pure aluminum showing only the slightest trace 

 of iron.^ 



^Papers from the Biological Laboratory of the Maine Agricultural Ex- 

 periment Station, No. 59. 



^It is a pleasure to acknowledge my indebtedness to Prof. James M. 

 Bartlett, Chemist of the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station, for the 

 malysis on which this statement is based. 



