496 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



or with a spray pump. After thus thoroughly disinfecting the pen, white- 

 wash it, using boiling water to make the white-wash and apply it while 

 hot. If the pigs have had access to small yards scrape the surface 

 dirt and litter into a pile and burn them, sprinkle the ground liberally, 

 first with chloride of lime and after a few days with air-slaked lime. 

 Tieat the fences about the yards the same as the pens. Use the chloride 

 of lime and air-slaked lime on the floor of the pens the same as in the 

 yards. Do not introduce new animals into the same quarters for at least 

 six months. Better if the pens can remain vacant through one winter. 

 It would be an additional safe-guard to repeat the disinfecting once or 

 twice in the meantime. 



If the building to be disinfected is comparatively tight sulphur fumes 

 can be used to advantage. To fumigate in this way take tin pails, fill 

 half full of dirt and place them in tubs half filled with water; put the 

 sulphur in the pails and pour over it a little alcohol and when all is ready 

 light the alcohol. Use five or six pounds of sulphur to each thousand 

 cubic feet of space. Keep the building closed for twenty-four hours or 

 longer. Too much care cannot be exercised in cleaning and disinfecting 

 pens where hogs affected with hog cholera have been kept. 



If the sick hogs have been allowed to roam in a field where disinfection 

 is impossible no other hogs should be allowed in the same field for a 

 year or two. 



In the foregoing discussion the serum treatment, which is promising 

 to be of much value in the cure and prevention of hog cholera, has not 

 been taken into consideration. Inasmuch as it is a promising remedy 

 it may be well to explain what it is, and how it is used. The serum or 

 antitoxin treatment has been somewhat recently introduced into medicine 

 for those diseases which are produced by bacteria. It has been used 

 during the past two or three years with a marked degree of success in 

 cases of diphtheria. In diseases which are produced by germs it is not 

 the germs, but rather a poison which the germs produce in the process 

 of life, which causes the disturbance in the body. When germs are in- 

 troduced into the body, they commence to multiply and in the multipli- 

 cation and growth produce their peculiar poison; the poisons differing in 

 the different species. As soon as this poison commences to be formed, 

 the body in order to protect itself commences to produce a counteracting 

 substance which is called antitoxin. The struggle for existence has be- 

 gun. Sometimes the body is victorious, enough of the antitoxin being 

 produced to counteract the action of the poison; the germs are worn out 

 and the body recovers its normal condition. At other times the fight is 

 a losing one for the body, the poison being produced in such quantities 

 as to cause death. In some diseases the body is nearly always victorious, 

 while in others it is nearly always defeated. The relative number and 

 strength of the germs, and the vigor of the body will decide the contest. 

 A strong animal is always better able to withstand disease than is one 

 whose constitution has been weakened, either by poor care and feeding, 

 or by improper breeding. 



The principle of the antitoxin treatment then, is to introduce into the 

 diseased animal some antitoxin, which has been produced by artificial 

 methods in some other animal. The animal selected for this work is 

 generally the horse, but cattle are sometimes used. Great care is neces- 

 sary to see that the animal thus used is free from all disease. 



