374 THE VETERINARY DOCTOR. 
INVESTIGATION OF DISEASE. 
“What is the disease?” is the first and most important question to ask. 
The number of people who fatefully assume from the beginning that the 
answer to this question is beyond their reach, is inexcusably large. If the 
non-professional reader would apply even a limited allowance of study and 
common sense, many of the less important ills might be avoided, and many 
others be successfully treated. A little special instruction is here given to 
enable one to detect a disease before it is too late, and thus to avoid, ina 
great measure, those disheartening ravages which at times come upon the 
uninformed owner of fowls. The small number of diseases which are 
liable to be mistaken makes it comparatively easy to form a right conclu- 
sion, for it will not take long to read the symptoms mentioned under al? 
of them, if necessary, and thus arrive at the truth by exclusion, by learning 
that “it is not this,” “it is not that,” and so on. ‘ 
A general knowledge of the organism, habits and appearance of fowls 
when in health is, of course, very desirable. A reasonably close observation 
is about all that we can expect in this matter from the ordinary owner of 
barn-yard poultry. .The experienced fancier adds to this a frequent hand- 
ling and more detailed study, to learn the normal hardness and suppleness 
of the flesh, the warmth, moisture and color of the skin, especially about the 
vent, and the outline and structure of the skeleton. It is also eminently 
desirable that one know what is a right condition of all the organs, but 
this is particularly true in respect to the hver and other digestive organs. 
Such knowledge can be gained only when a well fowl has been killed. 
One of the most common mistakes in the discovery of a disease is the 
forming of a decision after too little study. Finding one or two symptoms 
which are known to attend a suspected ailment, one is prone to jump at 
the conclusion that he has detected the real difficulty, wien a further in- 
vestigation would reveal these symptoms, in conjunction with others which 
would lead to the true conclusion. Every examination, therefore, should be 
thorough, until a degree of certainty is felt. It is essential, too, that the 
reader do not expect that a disease will always present just the symptoms 
mentioned in any book, for they will vary more or less in different fowls, 
and even in the same one at different times—a caution which merely calls 
for the exercise of judgment and common sense. 
When any doubt is felt upon the contagious nature of a disease, the 
affected animal should be removed from the flock until the possible danger 
is past. When a bird dies from an unknown cause it should be opened and 
the condition of the internal organs be noted, along with a study of their 
condition as represented in the following pages of treatment. 
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