ee TMM COMPLMTE POVLTRY BOOK. 



a firm dot, and contain but Utile Uquid ; at other times the blood does not coagu- 

 late at aU. It seems to be those cases where the duration of the disease has 

 been longest in which the blood loses its property of coagulation. 



"In the few cases examined by me in which the disease was contracted from 

 infected premises, etc., the lymphatic glands along the neck appear much more 

 congested than in cases which resulted from inoculation, indicating, as suggested 

 by Toussaint, that the virus had been taken with the food and absorbed from 

 the mouth or pharynx: 



"The brain, in the cases examined, has either been normal or not very pe^cep^ 

 ibly altered. The muscles at the seat of inoculation are generally reddened, 

 though sometimes perfectly normal; in a few cases, at the point, of inoculation 

 the tissue has been transformed into a whitish, rather firm substance, without 

 definite outline, but disappearing imperceptibly into the substance of the mus- 

 cle ; exceptionally this has separated from the musoulai- tissue, and exists as a 

 clearly circumscribed sequeatrum." 



We have given these symptoms at length, because fowl cholera is frequently 

 confnsed with other diseases, as simple diarrhoea, roup, etc., and successful treat- 

 ment depends, of course, upon a correct diagnosis of the case. 



Causes. — ^The cause of fowl cholera is unquestionably, in the great majority oJ 

 cases, contagion. Whether this contagious principle be one of the forms of 

 bacteria, like that to which anthrax fever in cattle and sheep has been traced, 

 and to which eminent authorities believe the swine-plague, or hog cholera, aa 

 well as poultry cholera, to be due, is not yet conclusively settled. 



Bacteria are microscopic organisms, probably vegetable in their nature, which 

 propagate in putrefying flesh after the manner of the yeast plant or the moulds, 

 and are the active agents of decay. Similar organisms have been found existing 

 in immense numbers in the blood of animals suffering from contagious disease, 

 and many pathologists believe them to be the cause and vehicle of contagion of 

 such diseases. 



However this may be, the experiments of Salmon, Pasteur and others, have 

 shown that fowl cholera is not communicated by simple contact, like measles 

 and smaU-pox in the human subject, since healthy fowls may be penned along- 

 , side of those suffering with the disease without being affected. If, however, the 

 flesh of diseased fowls be fed to healthy ones, or if the latter be allowed to run 

 over grounds containing the excrement of diseased fowls, contagion is sure 

 to follow. The disease may also be propagated by inoculating the healthy fowl 

 with blood or tissue from a diseased one. 



TrecOmeni. — Dr. Salmon says : "Medical treatment of sick birds is not to be 

 recommended under any circumstances. The malady runs its course, as a rule, 

 in one, two, or three days, and it can only be checked with great difaoulty. As 

 the' appetite is very poor, medicine can only be administered regularly by taking 

 •>••"* bird by itself and forcing it to swallow. But this requires too much time 

 to make ir«.d.vis4ble, if there were no other objection to the practice, Even in 

 those cases in whioh I -have succeeded in prolonging the life for two or three 

 weeks, death has finally occnrred from profound changes in the liver and intes- 

 tines. The great reason, however, for not treating sick birds is that the excre- 

 ment Is probably fiUed with the contagion, and it is much better to destroy them 



