POULTRY DISEASES AND THEIR TREATMENT. 163 



mestic state, i. e., on the present system of breeding pheasants 

 in preserves. Very few battues take place in which some of 

 these birds (generally designated males) are not killed and 

 mixed indiscriminately 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 existing 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 mat- 

 ter is as follows : "This disease is quite common with all vari- 

 eties of poultry. On examination of the ovary after death, the 

 ova are found in different stages of development, 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 peritoni- 

 tis and partly by the absorption of the products of decomposi- 

 tion." 



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

 attributed to the birds being too fat thus compressing 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 pen- 

 etration and multiplication of bacteria, it is possibly an infec- 

 tous disease." 



We have not been able to find anywhere in the literature that 

 there has been a thorough investigation of this disease. 



Ovarian Tumors. 



Tumors and cancerous growths on the ovary are not uncom- 

 mon. These include several sorts of interest to the pathologist, 

 but not to the practical poultryman. From the literature it ap- 



