Diseases of the Reproductive Organs 255 



(generally designated males) are not killed and mixed in- 

 discriminately with the heaps of the slain. 



"As to the cause of this disorganization, if it occurred only 

 in the old female, or if it were a common occurrence among 

 birds either of different genera or of the same genus, it could 

 be easily accounted for ; but when it is generally found exist- 

 ing among a class of birds which are bred in vast numbers in 

 a particularly artificial manner, it leads one to suppose that 

 the cause must be connected with this condition." 



In regard to all sorts of atrophy of the ovary it should be 

 said that there is no known way to treat them. Such cases 

 when they appear must be accepted by the poultryman as 

 one of the vicissitudes of the business. 



Gangrene of the Ovary 



Salmon and other writers on poultry diseases following 

 him have designated as gangrene a condition of the ovary 

 relatively often found at post-mortem. Salmon's discussion 

 of the matter is as follows : "This disease is quite common 

 with all varieties of poultry. On examination of the ovary 

 after death, the ova are found in different stages of develop- 

 ment, but instead of being yellowish-pink in color, with the 

 blood vessels well defined, they are brown or black, easily 

 crushed and the contents broken down into a putrid liquid. 

 Death is caused partly by peritonitis and partly by the ab- 

 sorption of the products of decomposition. 



"The cause of this trouble is not well understood. It 

 has been attributed to the birds being too fat, thus compress- 

 ing the ovary and hindering the evolution of the ova. As 

 it may occur in birds which are not fat and as it is evidently 

 accompanied by the penetration and multiplication of 

 bacteria, it is possibly an infectious disease." 



We have not been able to find anywhere in the literature 

 that there has been a thorough investigation of this disease. 



