PHEASANT. 



371 



Those who know a little of anatomy, are aware, that what passes 

 down the oesophagus or gullet, can have no direct communication with 

 the trachea or wind-pipe ; and, therefore, the rue, which might be admi- 

 nistered as a remedy for worms, in the stomach or intestines, cannot 

 reach the seat of the disorder in a direct manner ; and that its nature 

 must be completely altered, by the subtle parts of it only having been 

 taken up by the absorbents, and conveyed to these vermes, through the 

 circuitous means of the circulation of the blood. We must, therefore, 

 attribute the great success of this person, to a meritorious attention to 

 the young Pheasants, in keeping them clean, and by administering 

 plenty and variety of food, especially such as in their wild state would 

 be their infant aliment. That much of this success is to be attributed 

 to the locality of situation, experience has clearly demonstrated ; at the 

 short distance of a hundred yards, or perhaps less, from where the dis- 

 temper fatally rages, a cottager, who continually breeds chickens, never 

 discovered that his were ever affected, and scarcely fails in rearing the 

 whole of every brood ; which leads us to think, that through the in- 

 fluence of a cottage fire, the young chicks are continually inhaling a 

 preventative to the vermicular distemper. The smoke of wood or peat 

 is saturated with alkali, whose caustic quality either prevents the propa- 

 gation, or destroys the worm in its infancy. It is most probably to 

 this quality, that the fumes of tobacco have been found infallible in the 

 oscitans, as will be more particularly noticed hereafter ; and we really 

 suspect that most vegetable smoke will be found to be beneficial. 



Garlic, and the whole tribe of Allium, appears to have been adminis- 

 tered with some advantage as a vermifuge in this case, but is by no 

 means to be depended on as certain in its operations. In the advanced 

 stages of the disease, it may be administered as a strong infusion, 

 which should be the only drink of the birds ; at the same time chives 

 or young onions chopped small, and mixed with meal, may be given 

 very beneficially once or twice a day as their food, in the early stage 

 of the distemper, and before the violent irritation of the vermes has 

 caused inflammation. In the advanced state of the disorder, nothing 

 is so effectual as fumigation; the inhaling of the steam of medicated 

 liquors, or the smoke of some narcotic herb, are the only methods of 

 applying any remedy directly to the part affected ; and of these, tobacco 

 stands foremost as the readiest, from being so generally in use, and so 

 easily applied in the form of fumigation ; and we are happy to say, that 

 if it is properly administered, it is an infallible remedy. In order to 

 administer this fumigation in sufficient quantity, there is some care 

 required, that the chickens are not suffocated. We have repeated this 



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