The Illustrated Book of Poultry. 
190 
it to drink moderately after each meal only water slightly acidulated with nitric acid, but not 
leaving the fountain in the pen. The food should be seasoned with some such mixture as the 
No. 4, page 141, and half a tea-spoonful of sal- volatile be given in double the quantity of water 
every morning. Chopped onions or garlic have been found to have a remedial effect, given 
as green food. Walton’s tonic paste made into a thick emulsion with brandy, is also beneficial. 
Debility. — It sometimes happens that fowls droop without any apparent positive disease ; 
evidently suffering from prostration or want of “ tone,” having little appetite, and getting more and 
more out of condition generally. The most usual cause is over-showing, causing a greater strain on 
the nervous energies than the bird can withstand ; but any severe “ shock ” may have the same 
effect, and we have known it produced in a fine bird by the excessive terror caused by the sudden 
appearance of a large mastiff in the yard. In some cases birds have been prostrated by exhibition 
past recovery, but are usually amenable to judicious treatment. 
Strong tonics are not advisable ; but the administration twice daily of half a tea-spoonful of 
“ Parrish’s Chemical Food/’ mixed with a whole spoonful of water, changed every alternate or 
third week for a tea-spoonful twice daily (also with a spoonful of water) of any ordinary quinine 
and iron, or salicine mixture, will be usually followed by rapid improvement, as will the use of 
Walton’s Tonic Paste, or the capsules of cod-liver oil with quinine already mentioned. A raw 
new-laid egg should also be “ slipped ” down the bird’s throat every day till the strength and 
appetite appear to be returning, when it is best to change it for a little cooked meat, and leave of) 
all tonic except the chemical food, or a little tincture of muriate of iron in the water. 
We knew a case in which a fancier was presented with a magnificent Dorking cock, but 
apparently gone past recovery somehow , though what was the matter nobody knew. His man at 
first literally had to “ keep the bird alive ” by breaking raw eggs down his throat, three or four daily. 
After a while he would eat small bits of flesh meat, and by degrees other food ; and ultimately 
carried off the honours in a class of more than forty entries. Of the great value of raw eggs thus 
used in cases of marked debility, we have had knowledge on many occasions. 
DlARRHCEA. — This affection may be caused by any sudden change in diet or even of weather, 
and hence is rather common. If the looseness be observed early, it can be checked at once in 
most cases by giving a meal or two of well-boiled rice dredged over with finely-powdered chalk. 
If this be ineffectual, six drops of camphorated spirit may be given thrice daily on a pill of 
barley-meal, restricting the diet to boiled rice, barley-meal, and barley alone, with only a 
little cut grass daily ; or a prescription may be administered, as given by Mr. Tegetmeier many 
years ago, of five grains chalk, five grains rhubarb, and three grains cayenne pepper, made 
into a bolus or pill. In very severe cases we would add half a grain of opium to the pill, giving 
one morning and evening, or would administer chlorodyne in doses of three to twelve drops every 
four hours : this medicine should not however be employed without serious reason. After an 
attack, care must be taken not to over feed, and a quinine or salicine tonic should be given. The 
bone-dust spoken of at page 139 is an excellent preventive of diarrhoea. 
DIPHTHERIA. — Diphtheric Roup. — About the year 1876 a new and formidable complaint, 
at first vaguely known as “ the new disease,” made its appearance in England, and committed 
dreadful rav?ges, being conveyed into hundreds of yards by fowls purchased or returned from 
exhibition ; and, although less prevalent since, it never appears to have entirely died out. 
Its marked characteristic is the appearance of ulcers or sores anywhere about the head or upper 
