154 
FOWL CHOLEKA. 
places, etc., in the excrement of affected birds, and the food, 
drink and gravel are thus contaminated. Healthy birds may be 
kept in coops within a few feet of the sick ones for months 
without contracting the disease; but if the former are now 
placed in the same inclosure with the latter they sicken in a few 
days. 
2. The virus must he carried upon the grounds frequented by 
foicls before they contract the disease .—It is not probable that this 
disease originates, in any considerable number of cases, in any 
other way than by contagion. There is a possibility that it may 
originate in occasional instances by filthy surroundings if closely 
confined, or by feeding on decomposing substances ; but there are 
few facts to support such a conclusion, and it appears certain that 
in the vast majority of cases the disease is imported and kept up 
by contagion alone. 
It is thus brought upon farms either (1) with sick or infected 
fowls newly acquired, (2) with the blood or parts of the bodies of 
dead birds carried on the feet of people or brought by dogs or 
other animals, (3) with infected manure or feathers, or (4) pos¬ 
sibly by wild birds, animals (rabbits), or even insects that have 
contracted the disease or have eaten the blood or bodies of 
affected birds recently dead. The origin of the disease can gene¬ 
rally be traced in country districts, where houses are a consider¬ 
able distance apart, to recently acquired poultry. It is only in 
districts more thickly peopled, and then in exceptional instances, 
that the germs are carried by wild birds or animals or by in¬ 
sects. 
PREVENTIVE MEASURES FOR GROUNDS ALREADY INFECTED. 
1. Is the disease cholera f —Fowls frequently die in consider¬ 
able numbers from diseases that are not contagious, and hence it 
is a matter of primary importance to decide as to the nature of 
the affection when cholera is suspected. In my own experience I 
have found that this might be done with comparative certainty by 
inspection of the excrements. With fowls the excretions of the 
kidneys are joined in the cloaca with the undigested parts of the 
food, and both solid and liquid excrement are consequently voided 
together. They are not mixed to any great extent, however; 
