INTERNAL PARASITES 189 
Symptoms of Ascaridia infestation. Affected birds appear un- 
thrifty and emaciated. Lither diarrhea or constipation may occur. 
The affection is most severe in young birds. 
Treatment. Beach conducted experiments with a number of 
remedies to determine their value in causing the expulsion of the 
worms and came to the conclusion that tobacco stems are most ef- 
ficient. For one hundred fowls he takes one pound of finely chopped 
tobacco stems and steeps them for two hours in enough water to keep 
the mass covered. The liquid and the stems are mixed with half 
the amount of ground feed usually allowed the birds for one feed- 
ing. On the evening before the day of administering the remedy, 
the birds should be fed only half a ration and they should be kept 
without feed until afternoon of the following day. Then the mixture 
of tobacco and feed is given and under the circumstances is sometimes 
readily eaten. Occasionally, fowls refuse the mixture. Two hours 
later, the birds are given a quarter size ration of ground feed mixed 
with water containing eleven ounces of Epsom salts for each hundred 
birds. No difference of dosage to correspond to birds of different 
ages is attempted, for the matter is adjusted by the amounts of the 
mixtures that the birds can eat. Reasonable care should be exercised 
to make certain that birds have equal opportunity to eat. The treat- 
ment is calculated to cost about ten cents per hundred fowls. 
The same procedure should be repeated in two weeks which has 
been found to be sufficient to free the birds entirely from parasites. 
Difficulty in administering the treatment is sometimes encountered 
because the birds will refuse to eat the mash containing the tobacco. 
Theobald recommends thymol as an agent against nematodes. The 
dose for the fowl is .06 gram given in the form of a pill. Two or 
three hours after giving the thymol, a teaspoonful of olive oil is 
administered. 
Mégnin recommends administering santonin in the food in a dose 
of 4 to 5 grams for every ten birds. 
Klee recommends 5 to 10 drops of anise oil in 1 to 2 teaspoonfuls 
of olive oil, also 4 to 6 drops of benzol with oil. 
Prophylaxis. Thorough disinfection of the yards and quarters 
is necessary in order to minimize the possibility of reinfection from 
worm eggs that have been deposited in the feces. Herms and Beach 
have determined that worm eggs are found only in the top two inches 
of the soil of infected yards. After sweeping the yard and removing 
rubbish the area was treated with a 1: 1000 solution of bichloride 
of mercury. About one gallon of solution to each ten square feet of 
