52 
THE POULTRY BOOK. 
account of each variety must be regarded as incomplete, unless some mention is 
made of the diseases to which the fowls belonging to it are most prone, and the 
readiest mode by which these may be obviated. 
Cochins, as already stated, have a great and unusual inclination to accumulate 
internal fat; this hinders the action of the respiratory and circulating systems, 
and the result is that, in highly-fed birds, apoplexy not unfrequently supervenes. 
The mode of preventing this sudden and usually fatal illness is self-evident : it is 
simply to diminish the amount of food, and to avoid the use of those kinds which, 
like Indian corn, are of a very fattening character. When internal fat accumulates 
very largely in the hens, the abdomen becomes quite pendant, nearly touching the 
ground, and the animal assumes the perpendicular attitude of the Penguin. It is 
needless to say that such hens are useless for stock purposes. 
When heavy Cochins are allowed to roost in houses where the perches are either 
high, or small and angular, they are very subject to an inflammatory affection of 
the feet, which often ends in suppuration ; this disease is also apparently not 
unfrequently caused by the runs which are paved with loose sharp-edged stones. 
White comb — a skin disease of an obstinate chronic character, the first symptom 
of which is a scurfy whiteness of the comb — is another result of over-feeding, and 
of employing food of an unduly stimulating or unwholesome character. Cochins 
are remarkably free from liability to that pest of the poultry yard known as roup ; 
and, as chickens, are as hardy and as little — perhaps it would be more correct to 
say less — Liable to disease than any other variety whatever. 
