THE PIGEON BOOK 49 



and ureters, which separate and remove from the blood 

 the greater part of the waste of the body. In addition, 

 there is the genital apparatus, consisting of testicles in 

 the male, and ovaries and oviducts in the female, their 

 purpose being the reproduction of the species. 



Having briefly explained the different organs that make 

 up the whole pigeon, the reader will be better able to 

 appreciate how minute these organs are, and with what 

 mechanical exactitude all must do their work to keep 

 the subject in health, and if any one organ becomes de- 

 ranged the damaging effect it must have on the whole. 



In order to be able to cure a disease we must know 

 something of its cause, and in order to appreciate to the 

 full the cause we must know the agents liable to in- 

 juriously affect the diseased organ. 



In my long experience with pigeons the greatest diffi- 

 culty has been to correctly diagnose the disease from 

 which the patient was suffering. 



Once you can do this with certainty, the remedy of the 

 trouble is less difficult. 



The veterinary surgeon who attends to the suffering 

 animal or bird has a much more difficult task than the 

 healer of human sufferings. We poor mortals know where 

 we feel a pain or ache, and can tell the healer our feelings 

 and sufferings, but not so with the animal or bird. Ex- 

 amination and symptoms are all that the diagnosis can be 

 based upon. 



Here I should like to state that in many cases I have 

 found pigeons respond readily to treatment, but in others 

 drugs would have little or no effect. 



The very formation of the organs of nutrition makes 

 treatment all the more difficult, as pigeons have a nasty 

 habit of vomiting anything objectionable before it passes 

 from the crop into the stomach. For this reason, I 



D 



