Diseases op Poultry. 
193 
is similar. Green food must be supplied, and cleanliness attended to ; while the parts are dressed 
with tar and sulphur ointment, or with an unguent compound of cocoa-nut oil, one ounce, and tur- 
meric, in powder, quarter of an ounce. Carbolated vaseline is also a good dressing. The internal 
treatment will consist of a dose of Epsom salts at commencement, followed by a tea-spoonful oi 
powdered sulphur daily in the focd for ten days, by which time a cure will generally be effected. 
Should the sulphur cause irritation before a cure is obtained, as shown by the fowl constantly 
scratching its head, the parts may be dressed for a few days with M'Dougall’s Fluid Carbolate, 
diluted with three parts water. 
FEATHER-EATING. — Instances have always occurred of fowls contracting the unnatural vice 
of devouring each others’ plumage, even till the blood flows ; but the French and American breeds 
seem peculiarly subject to it, and since their introduction complaints have been constant. Malays 
also are predisposed to the unnatural appetite. 
No unfailing specific has hitherto been discovered. The most opposite remedies have answered 
in certain cases ; and this, joined to the fact that the vicious propensity is almost invariably 
confined to hens, would tend to prove that it is somewhat analogous to the strange fancies for 
unusual articles of diet frequently observed in the female sex generally. Giving raw meat daily 
has been known to stop it, and so has leaving off meat ; giving purgatives to deplete the system, 
and tonics to strengthen it, have both proved effective ; while other cases have baffled all means 
which have been tried, and tend to prove that there is some craving of the female system as yet 
unsatisfied. Cocks will stand still to be pecked at till they are covered with blood, without 
appearing to object in the least, and rarely if ever retaliating. On the other hand, a case was 
reported to us only a few weeks before writing these lines, in which eighteen Brahma cockerels — a 
breed rarely subject to this affection at all — in a grass-run measuring nineteen by nine yards, 
suddenly manifested the tendency in a very aggravated form, as well as the pullets in the same 
yard ; proving that the view we take cannot account for all cases. This instance was the more 
remarkable because the disease rarely breaks out in a run of that size, generally occurring in small 
yards, and especially if cleanliness be neglected. 
A bran and linseed mash twice a week has been known to afford marked benefit ; and in one 
case where no animal food had been given, we knew a perfect cure attained by giving daily 
fresh or raw bones crushed small ; in another case by the free use of bone meal in all the food 
given for some days. The most general success, however, appeared from all our inquiries to have 
attended the copious use of lettuces, especially if running to seed ; and the medical qualities of 
this plant led us to advise the trial of a sedative. Accordingly, we have lately prescribed one-eighth 
to one-fourth of a grain daily of acetate of morphia, with a grain of calomel in addition twice a 
week, and the addition of carbonate of potass to the drinking-water in proportion sufficient to give 
a decided alkaline taste, with more marked success than has attended any treatment we know ; 
so marked, in fact, that we have reason to believe it may be found generally effectual. In the case 
mentioned the vice was cured within a week, and in others, also, it has succeeded. External 
applications are, however, also necessary ; short stumps of feathers must be extracted, and all the 
parts attacked copiously anointed with carbolated vaseline, or a very stiff lather made from 
carbolic disinfecting soap, in order to nauseate the unnatural palate of the birds. 
We may add that we have become convinced, from repeated observation, that the immediate 
exciting cause of this most disgusting propensity, in nine cases out of ten, is thirst. We have 
again and again seen it commence when the fountain was empty or absent, or filled with sun- 
warmed water, and have verified this conclusion repeatedly by withholding water from a hen known 
R 
