CONTAGIOUS DISEASES OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS. 397 



Mr. Rickett stated that to his certain knowledge dead hogs have been 

 thrown into the river above and have floated down past his place. 



13. Mr. William B. Grahani's herd, two miles from Biggsville. My 

 first visit to his place was on December 29. Mr. Graham's herd con- 

 sisted at that date of 127 hogs and shoats, a majority of which had been 

 ringed late in October. The whole herd had the rnu of a large pasture 

 and of a corn-stalk field, and slept till within two days in a huge straw- 

 stack. The common feeding-place was around a com-crib in the stalk- 

 field, and the water for drinking was obtained from a small streamlet of 

 running water flowing diagonally from northeast to southwest through 

 the pasture. This small creek or streamlet has its source above, on the 

 farm of one of Mr. Graham's neighbors, who also has his hog-yard or hog- 

 pasture on the same streamlet, but above. In the early part of Decem- 

 ber, or (more likely) in the latter part of I^ovember, swine plague made 

 its appearance in the herd of his neighbor, who immediately sold and 

 shipped his whole herd, probably to Chicago, as soon as he found his 

 animals sick and dying, or after he had lost a few. In Mr. Graham's 

 herd the disease made its appearance, according to his statement, on 

 December 21 or 22, but iDrobably a few days earlier, because the first 

 symptoms very likely had been overlooked. Up to December 29 three 

 animals had died, and were hauled away early in the morning before my 

 arrival by the "dead-hog man,'' or tank agent. I found from twenty- 

 five to thirty animals unmistakably sick, about forty or fifty doubtful, 

 and about iifty or sixty, to all appearances, perfectly healthy. Among 

 the sick ones, which were all such as had been ringed — at that time no 

 sick animal could be found among those that had not been ringed — 

 about a dozen or more had badly swelled and ulcerating noses, and pro- 

 duced at each breath a snorting or snuffling noise. Although Mr. Gra- 

 ham, having invested in " sure-cure medicines," did not consent at that 

 time to subject his herd to an experimental treatment, or did not give 

 them into my charge, I advised him to separate the healthy animals from 

 those evidently sick, and to remove the former to a non-infected place 

 out of the influence of the infectious principle. When I visited him 

 again, on January 10, he had made a separation, but had moved the 

 healthiest or best portion of his herd to a piece of low ground, full of 

 hazel brush and low scrubs, situated below and to the southwest of the 

 old hog-pasture, and traversed by the same small creek. This was un- 

 doubtedly the very worst piece of ground to which he could have taken 

 healthy hogs for protection, because all the water passing through that 

 piece of ground came from the old hog-pasture, and the animals in con- 

 sequence had to drink infected water. On January 10 most of the ani- 

 mals taken to that piece of ground, and constituting originally the best 

 portion of the herd, had died; only a few were still alive. 



14. Mr. CampbdVs herd at Monmouili. — ]Mr. Campbell informed me on 

 February 11 that a few years ago he had his hog-lot on the banks of a 

 creek ; swine plague broke out in his herd and nearly every animal 

 died. He is sure the disease was communicated to his herd by the 

 carcasses of dead hogs which floated down the creek. 



The above facts and observations, which have not been observed by 

 myself, have been communicated to me by reliable persons, whose verac- 

 ity cannot be doubted. They corroborate my former conclusions con- 

 cern iug the infectiousness and the spreading of swine plague, as stated 

 in my ])revious reports, and demonstrate especially — 



1. That swine plague, very probably, is not communicated, at least 

 not easily, unless the infectious i)rinciple (the Schizomycetes) is intro- 

 duced either into the digestive apparatus with the food or with the 



