several inches long, by the hundreds, and were full 

 of life, creeping around for some time upon the 

 platter I use for holding post mortems. 



DIPHTHERIA. 



Diphtheria is quite frequently called Canker, 

 and the latter is very often mistaken for the formei', 

 but there is no question but that there is some 

 similarity as far as the symptoms are concerned. 

 Canker is a fungus growth afflicting, as it were, the 

 sides of the throat mostly, where in Diphtheria it 

 i. e. the growth, is confined to the membrane farther 

 down the throat and as the disease advances these 

 growths become enlarged and project on the sides of 

 the neck just below the entrance to the wind pipe. 

 It is however, mostly confined to the young squabs 

 at an age of two or three weeks and being the cause 

 of the death of many during the winter months. Old 

 birds may be subject to the disease as much as the 

 young, but they being so much stronger can endure 

 it a longer period of time, and it is probably trans- 

 mitted by them to their squabs. The parents may 

 be in apparent good health, there being no growth 

 in the throat visible upon an examination, but farther 

 down, the esophagus, contains the germ or bacillus 

 of Diphtheria, and the peculiar way by which nature 

 adopted the means of their feeding their young is 

 one reason why it is so easily transmitted. It is, 

 nevertheless, a very contagious disease, and the 

 afflicted birds should always be removed far from 

 the loft and placed in the "Hospital" by themselves. 



Symptoms: Fever, a hard, red lump will be 

 oeen projecting from the sides of the neck which 

 will be very much inflamed and contain a great 



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