ENTEBITI8 IN PHEASANTS. 141 



Orpingtoiij in Kent, in about two acres of land, a fatal 

 epidemic of fowls, by whicli lie lost, between March, 1888, 

 and March, 1889, over 400 birds." 



He further states the disease to be highly infectious, as 

 the evacuations of the diseased fowls are scattered about on 

 the ground, contaminating the food which is picked up by 

 the others, and rapidly spreads amongst the entire flock. 

 The symptoms are severe purging of yellow evacuations, 

 and the fowl is found dead in one or two days. The disease 

 can only be checked by the immediate removal of the un- 

 infected birds from the tainted ground, which should be 

 disinfected with quicklime, or still better, gaslime, and well 

 turned over. Every infected fowl should be at once taken 

 away and destroyed, and the body burnt, not thrown on the 

 ground, where the germs of the disease (bacilli) can spread. 

 There should be no attempt at treatment even of the most 

 valuable birds, and no chickens should be reared nor fresh 

 stock placed on the tainted soil. 



Some time since I received with a dead pheasant the 

 following letter, showing how readily this fatal epidemic may 

 spread from an overcrowded poultry-run into the coverts. 

 The writer says : 



" I am sending you with this a young pheasant which has 

 been attacked with a disease that has unfortunately destroyed 

 a large number of birds which were placed in the woods in a 

 perfectly healthy condition. It is the general opinion that 

 the birds have been affected by a poultry farm which is on 

 the estate, as the fowls were known to be dying in large 

 quantities from a similar disease." 



On examination I found this bird affected with every 

 symptom of fowl enteritis. The intestines showed redness in 

 the mucous membrane, in the cascal appendages there was a 

 great amount of mucus, the spleen and liver were enlarged, 

 and there is no doubt that the bacteria, or microbes causing 

 the disease, could have been cultivated if it had been thought 

 necessary to do so. There cannot be the slightest doubt that 



