Symptoms: Difficult, short, rapid, or wheezing breathing, with open beak, hot breast, melancholy, want of appetite, perceptible fever, painful coughing, discharge of yellow phlegm, sometimes streaked with blood (Zurn); a chirping, gasping sound to be heard, particularly at quiet moments in the evening. Treatment: Warm, moist air, as above; according to Zurn's prescription, two or three pills of carbonate of ammonia (5) or purified nitre (77) every three hours daily. The remedies for cold in the air tubes should also be given when the inflammation of the lungs is catarrhous.

Windpipe Worm or Larynx Worm {Syngamus trachealis, s. Strongylus Syngamus) is one of the most mischievous of parasites for cage or yard birds. It resembles a leech in shape, cylindrical, but pointed towards the end, of a reddish colour; the male is 15752m. to 1969in., and the female 47256in. to 51194in. in length, and from 01969m. to 023628in. diameter. The eggs are cylindrical, and from 0043318m. long and 00141768in. diameter. With a strong cover to its mouth, which acts as a cupping-glass, it bores into the mucous membrane of the larynx or windpipe, singly or in numbers, causes redness, swelling, accumulation of thick stringy phlegm, and, by this, as well as by its ever-increasing bodily size, causes suffocation. Symptoms: Peculiar cough, throwing the head about, want of breath, open beak, gasping for air, and discharge of phlegm. Cause: The sick bird has eaten the phlegm discharged by itself or some other bird, in which innumerable eggs of the parasite may be found. Precautionary measures: The strictest isolation of every fresh arrival, as well as of every sick bird, and the most careful watching; good, dry, airy quarters, and the utmost cleanliness. When the visitation appears as an epidemic, the cages and walls must be scrubbed with warm water and soap, or with a solution of carbolic acid (49). The food and drinking vessels must also be thoroughly scrubbed. Treatment: Examine the larynx, and take out the worm by means of tweezers (Zurn); rub in pure spirits of turpentine or benzine; give creosote vapour (54) to inhale, and administer half or one teaspoonful of pure linseed oil.

Diphtheria and Croup (Diphtheritic-croupish Inflammation of the Mucous Membrane) is caused by vegetable parasites, called gregarinse.* Symptoms: Coughing, sneezing, difficult breathing with open beak, shaking of the head, discharge of sweet-smelling phlegm, difficulty in swallowing, gasping for air, and increasing shortness of breath, together with snoring and rattling, growing dulness, sitting on the ground with drooping wings and closed eyes (at the same time nearly always catarrh in the bowels and watery, slimy excretion); then trembling, shivering, and thirst. The seat of the disease is in the mucous membrane of the mouth, throat, larynx, the air tubes, the bronchial tubes, the intestines; also in the membranes of the nose, the ligatures and cuticle of the eye. From the nostrils flows a yellow, slimy, clammy fluid, which hardens into a dark yellow or brownish crust, the eyelids swell, and adhere together. The illness usually lasts two or three weeks, or, it may be, sixty or seventy days. Preventative Measures: Examine every freshly received bird, and isolate it for the purpose of noticing its condition. Strictly isolate every sick one, immediately destroy the bodies of those that die, and carefully clean the cages and vessels with a solution of carbolic acid (49). Treatment: As a rule, the diseased bird is lost, and the chief efforts must be directed to prevent any infection, which may be caused by the least touch of the secretions of the parts attacked. Administer a solution of carbolic acid (43); and smear or sprinkle, by means of a dusting brush, the diseased parts of the membrane with the same (43). The incrustations must be softened with good grease, and not pulled off forcibly; a solution of nitrate of silver (28) is used for smearing, and then the parts washed with a solution of common salt (51), tincture of iodine (33), and, for the eyes, a solution of salicylic acid (73), a solution of vitriol of copper (55), and a solution of tannin (82). Internally, one may give chlorate of kali (36), one teaspoonful three times daily, and smear with the same (37) externally.

*Gregarinse are microscopical living creatures, which have of late been regarded mostly as vegetable organisms. They appear in masses and occasion severe symptoms of disease in men and animals.

Inflammation of the Bronchial Tubes and Lungs is often produced by fungous parasites. Symptoms : Hoarseness, snoring, rattling breathing, fever, want of appetite, great thirst, then rapid and great emaciation, and finally diarrhoea. Duration: Six to eight days, often two months. Preventative Measures: Inhalation of a weak tar vapour (84); the most extreme cleanliness, and the isolation of every suspected bird. Treatment: Inhalation of tincture of iodine (35); but very few recover.