[244] DE AFFECTIBUS CORPORIS GALLINACEORUM.

DISEASES
OF GALLINACEOUS BODY

Inter affectus corporis quibus Gallinaceum genus infestatur, pituita, sive coryza[1], quae ipsis peculiaris, ac inimicissima est, et {ptiriasis} <phthiriasis[2]> seu pedicularis morbus, peculiares sunt. De quibus itaque prius dicendum videtur.

Among the body’s diseases by which the gallinaceous genus is struck they are typical the pip - in its catarrhal type, or nasal catarrh, which is peculiar to them and very harmful, and the phthiriasis, or lousy illness. So it seems advisable to speak of these firstly.

Pituita est humor e cerebro in nares, nec non in fauces destillans, edendi, bibendique cupidinem eis auferens, linguaeque officiens. Palladius[3] albam pelliculam vocat extremam linguam vestientem: adeo ut saepe periculo non careat id malum, sed interimat etiam. Signa evidentia admodum sunt, nam lingua indurescit, ut pipire, glocire, {glacillare} <gracillare>, cucu<r>rireque in summa vocem emittere nequeant: marcescunt etiam et cibum capere nolunt. Est autem affectus iste, quem nos vulgo la pivida[4] dicimus, superiores Germani das {pfippe} <pfipfe[5]>, inferiores de pippe. Quae nomina, ut videtur, per onomatopoeiam ficta sunt, quoniam hoc avium genus ita affectum consimilem vocem edat. Oritur a sordido potu {plerunque} <plerumque>. In assignando tempore, quo maxime hoc malo torquetur, a Plinio Columella dissentit. Plinius[6] enim inimicissimam esse illi testatur, maxime inter messis et vindemiae tempus. Contra Columella[7], cum frigore, et cibi penuria laborant. Quis autem inter messis, et vindemiae tempus frigore torqueri dicat? ut interim de cibo nihil dicam? Nam et cibum in agris, ubi messis fuit, copios<i>orem habent. Quare forte dicendum est, tam ob exuberantem calorem, qualis inter messem, et vindemiam esse solet, quam ex immodico frigore in id malum incurrere.

The pip is a liquid dropping from brain to nostrils, as well as into the throat, depriving them of eating and drinking desire, damaging also the tongue. Palladius calls as white little skin that one which covers the tip of the tongue: so that often this disease is not devoid of danger, but is also able to kill. The signs of it are quite evident, for the tongue grows hard, so that they cannot peep, cluck, cackle, or crow; in short, they cannot utter the voice: they also pine away and refuse to take food. This is the disease we commonly call la pivida in Italian, the northern Germans das pfipfe, the southern Germans de pippe. These names, as it seems, were formed by onomatopoeia, since this genus of birds when thus afflicted utters a quite similar voice. The disease usually originates from dirty beverage. In assigning the time when these birds are particularly afflicted with this illness, Columella disagrees with Pliny. For Pliny testifies that it is very dangerous chiefly between the time of harvest and grape gathering. Columella, on the contrary, says when they are troubled with the cold and poor food. But who could say that they are afflicted with cold between harvest and grape gathering time? So, shall I say nothing, meanwhile, about their food? For they have also more abundant food in the fields when the harvest has been completed. Therefore, perhaps, we must say that they incur this illness both because of excessive heat usually existing between harvest and grape gathering time, as well as because of an immoderate cold weather.

Addidit porro, et aliam causam Columella, cum scilicet ficus, aut uva immatura ad satietatem permissa est. Ita enim textus legi debet, ut Ornithologus[8] etiam existimat, non autem cum ficus, et uva immatura nec ad satietatem usque permissa est, ut vulgati codices habent. Nam eo modo sensus verborum non cohaeret. Caeterum ut et alteram causam examinemus, quod scilicet ex cibi penuria pituita oriatur, ut ille tradit, iterum Plinio dissentit, qui alibi disertissimis verbis eius remedium in fame ponit. Quid igitur dicendum? Putarim ego Columellam de penuria cibi praestantioris loqui, ut nempe quid praeter naturam devorare coactae eo malo afficiantur. Plinium vero ex cibi melioris copia, {pleoricum} <plethoricum>[9] habitum nactas ita affici credere, itaque inediam praescribere.

Besides Columella added another cause, that is, when figs or unripe grapes are allowed to satiety. For the text ought to be read thus, as the Ornithologist also believes, and not when figs and unripe grapes are not allowed to satiety, as common manuscripts report. For in this manner the sense of the words does not hang together. Besides, to examine also the other cause, namely, that the pip arises from shortage of food, as Columella reports, he newly disagrees with Pliny who elsewhere in most clear words places the remedy for pip in hunger. What then is to be said? Therefore I should think Columella is speaking of the lack of better food, since when hens are forced to eat something beyond nature they are afflicted with that illness. But Pliny believes they are thus afflicted because acquired a plethoric build thanks to an abundance of better food; thus he prescribes abstinence from food.

Ut praeserventur ab eiusmodi malo, Columella[10] praecipit, ut purissimam illis aquam potandam demus. Id autem praestare non poterimus, nisi cum aquae, tum vasorum etiam curam habeamus, hoc est, nisi aquam puram, limpidamque semper demus, saepiusque ne marcescat, immutemus, vasaque aliquoties intus, et extra abluamus, et immunditiis detergamus. Leontinus origanum in aqua macerat, eamque ita bibendam offert, praeservareque a pituita Gallinas arbitratur. Eodem modo alias herbas ita aquae imponere poterimus, ac similiter a tali affectu Gallinas praeservare. Vult item Columella Gallinaria fumigari, et ab excrementis aliquoties repurgari.

In order to preserve them from this illness Columella advises us to give them the purest water to drink. We shall not be able to do this unless we take care of both water and vessels, that is, unless we always give them pure, clean water and, to keep it from becoming stale, unless we change it rather frequently and sometimes washing vessels inside and out and wiping off all dirt. Leontinus - a geoponic writer - soaks oregano in water and offers it for drinking, and he thinks this preserves hens from pip. In the same way, we can put other herbs in the water and likewise guard the hens from such illness. Columella also insists that the hen houses should be fumigated and sometimes cleared of excrements.

Si vero iam in morbum inciderint, ad alia remedia confugiendum est, idque non solummodo, ut vulgus facit, penna per transversas nares inserta, ac quotidie mota; quandoquidem quae ita curantur, multas saepius interiisse compertum est{:}<.> Verum alia etiam tentanda medicamina: quorum magna copia cum apud authores, recentiores maxime extet, itaque et nos aliquot abducemus, ut doctissimus lector ex iis seligat, quod sibi accom<m>odatius videbitur.

But if hens already fell ill, we must seek other remedies, and not only, as common folk does, by inserting a feather through their nostrils and moving it daily: for it has been found that many of those treated in this way rather frequently died. To tell the truth, other medicaments must be also tried: since there is a large abundance of them among the authors, especially the more recent ones, so that we shall take some of them, and the very learned reader must choose among them whichever seems more suitable to him.

Plinius[11] alibi mistum far in cibo prodesse tradidit et alibi acinos ligustri, alibi denique fumum herbae sabinae eiusmodi morbum sanare. Galenus[12] idem pollicetur ex alliis, et caepis. Allia etiam multi alii commendant, sed diversimode exhibent. Etenim quidam, teste Columella, spicas eorum tepido madefactas oleo <faucibus> inserunt: quod pariter Palladius[13] repetiit, sed pro spica mica habet, corrupto, ut videtur, textu. Paxamus eisdem minutim conscis<s>is, et in calidum oleum iniectis, ubi refrixerint, ora Gallinarum colluere iubet, ac, si illa<s> voraverint, efficacius restitui ait. Nonnulli, eodem referente allia in humano lotio elixant, rostrumque Gallinae illis fovent, cavendo quam maxime, ne portio aliqua in oculos influat. Leontinus pariter allio rostri foramina inungit, aut in aquam conijcit, et potandam exhibet. Scilla munda in aqua macerata, et exhibita cum farina idem praestat. Sunt qui ad idem malum origani, hyssopi, et thymi suffitu caput Gallinae fumigent, et mox allio rostrum eius perfricent. Quidam etiam urina tepida rigant ora, et tam diu teste Columella comprimunt, donec eas amaritudo per nares emoliri pituitae nauseam cogat. Uva quoque quam Graeci staphisagriam[14] vocant, cum cibo mista prodest, vel eadem cum aqua trita potui data.

In a passage Pliny told that emmer mixed in food is useful, and, in another passage, privet berries, finally, in another, the smoke of the sabin herb - Juniperus sabina - cures an illness of this kind. Galen promises the same thing by the use of various kind of garlic and onion. Many other persons recommend various kind of garlic, but give them in different ways. And in fact some people, according to Columella, insert in throat its cloves moistened with warm oil: Palladius repeated the same thing in the same way, but he has mica - bit - instead of spica - slice – of garlic, as it seems because of a corrupted text. Paxamus - a geoponic writer - suggests to wet the hens’ mouths with them cut up fine and placed in warm oil, when they have cooled off, and if they swallowed them, he says that they will recover even faster. Some people, according to the same source, cook garlic in human urine and bathe the hen's beak with it, taking the greatest possible care that the smallest quantity does not enter the eyes. Leontinus likewise applies garlic to beak’s holes, or puts it in water and gives it to drink. Cleaned scilla - perhaps Scilla maritima, sea squill - soaked in water and given with meal, achieves the same result. Some people against the same illness fumigate the hen's head with smoke of oregano, hyssop and thyme, and hereupon rub her beak with garlic. Others bathe her mouth also with tepid urine and press it, according to Columella, to such an extent until the bitterness forces to eject the repugnance for pip through nostrils. The grape which the Greeks call staphisagria - Delphinium staphisagria, stavesacre; on the contrary agrian staphylen in Columella is the Bryonia alba. or black-berried white bryony - mixed with food is also a help, or the same plant ground up in drinking water.