654 
VERMINOUS DISEASE AMONG FOAVLS. 
and opened, with the same result, except that a fluke was found in 
the liver of one of them. 
I could add many facts to these, hut, perhaps, I have already been 
guilty of too much repetition. It is a murderous disease among 
poultry, and especially among young birds; but no one had de¬ 
veloped its nature—the presence of these destructive worms. It 
usually is observed Avhen the birds are between six and twelve 
months old. Birds of two or three years old are rarely its victims. 
I am also disposed to believe that the predisposing and determin¬ 
ing causes of the presence of worms, whether in the digestive 
canal or in the liver, are the same in every class of animals. 
Prophylactic treatment. —In order to accomplish the end which 
I proposed to myself in the different localities, I arranged in the 
first class those which appeared to me to be only slightly affected. 
The preservative treatment to which I submitted them was the 
following :—I took three pints of water, and put into it two hand¬ 
fuls of the leaves and tops of the common tansy, if the plant Avas 
green, or two ounces and a-half when it was dried, and boiled them 
until reduced to a quart. I then added a handful of the summer 
savory, green or dry. These were suffered to boil together during 
three or four minutes, when they were taken from the fire, covered 
closely over, and left to infuse during three quarters of an hour. 
The infusion was then strained through clean linen, two ounces of 
honey were added to it, and it was put aside for use. 
When I was called upon to attend a poultry yard in which this 
verminous disease had appeared, I used to give to each of the 
young birds two spoonfuls of this tisane before they had the op¬ 
portunity of getting at any food, and also before their supper. 
They likewise had a little increased allowance of wheat and barley, 
and care was taken that they had access only to pure water. This 
was continued during six or seven days, at the expiration of which 
time a marked change had taken place in their appetite and ap¬ 
pearance. They were more eager for food, their feathers lay 
smoother, and every symptom of illness had vanished. They 
were then put Avith the old birds, and treated in the ordinary 
manner. 
Curative Treatment. —The birds in which symptoms of the dis¬ 
ease, more or less alarming, had appeared were treated in the folloAV- 
ing manner. I took of the roots of common brake (^Pter is aquilina) 
dried, and of the leaves and summits of tansy {Tanacetumvulgare) 
also dried, three ounces, and boiled them in three pints of Avater, add¬ 
ing to the decoction a good handful of summer savory ( Satureja Hor- 
tensis ) dried. These were boiled five or six minutes, and then cover¬ 
ed closely, and left to infuse during an hour, and afterwards strained, 
as before described, through linen. A sufficient quantity of barley 
