CONTAGIOUS DISEASES OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS. 399 



beings {cf. ^^GutachiUeher Bericlit vcher verdorhene Lehencucrstc,''^ cooi- 

 inunicatecl in Geiiacli's ^^ArcMv fuer icissenscMftlkke unci pralitisclie 

 TJderhcWcundc,''^ Vol. I, page 182). It may also not bo out of place to 

 relate a case that occurred last summer in Knox County, Illinois. A 

 well-to-do and bigbly respectable family, residing near Yates City, lost, 

 in last Julj', tliree children, aged respectively thirteen, five or six, and 

 two and a half or three years, of a disease diagnosed by the attending 

 physicians as dii^htheria. The two remaining children of the same 

 family also became affected, but recovered. Five physicians were in 

 attendance, and made a careful research as to the possible cause or 

 causes, and could find but one thing which might be construed as such. 

 The family used ice which had been taken from a creek into which, 

 above, some hogs (hogs that had died of swine plague) had been thrown 

 just before the water of the creek became frozen. My informants are a 

 highly respected i>hysician in Biggsville, Dr. Maxwell, and a near rela- 

 tion of the afflicted family, ^Slr. John McKee, who has a drug-store in 

 the same place. 



FACTS AND EXPERIMENTS RELATING TO TREATMENT AND PREVENTION. 



Considering it as one of the principal objects of my present investiga- 

 tion to ascertain what may possibly be accomplished in regard to treat- 

 ment and prevention, or rather as to arresting tlio spreading of swine 

 plague from herd to herd and from animal to animal by such means as 

 are at the command of the farmer, and can be employed by every one 

 who possesses common intelligence and an ordinary degree of watchful- 

 ness, I made quite extensive experiments with six different herds of 

 swine, numbering from twenty-odd animals to about four hundred, or, 

 on an average, about one hundred and fifty head eacb. 



1. 31r. Kennedy's herd. — My first visit, as already stated, was made on 

 October 14. Mr. Kennedy kept his herd of swine, of twenty-odd head, 

 in a pasture a short distance from his house. He had recently bought 

 a few pigs out of an infected herd, and thereby introduced the plague 

 among his swine. I found three sick animals, among them one that was 

 very sick. These three, on my advice, were immediately taken out of 

 the pasture and i)ut in an open pen by themselves, built expressly for 

 them in the orchard. The other hogs or shoats were also taken out of 

 the pasture and shut up in a yard, which had formerly served as a cat- 

 tle-yard. The three diseased pigs were treate'd with hyposulphite of 

 soda, of which they received each, three times a day, a (heaped) tea- 

 spoonful in their water for drinking. I further instructed Mr. Kennedy 

 to feed and water each time, morning, noon, and night, first his healthy 

 shoats and then the sick ones, and not to enter or go near the pen or 

 yard of the healthy animals after he had been to the sick pigs. My 

 directions, as far as I could learn, have been faithfully complied with in 

 every particidar ; at any rate, the medicines have been promptly given 

 according to my directions. My su.bsequent visits to Mr. Kennedy's 

 herd were on October 17, 18, 21, 24, and 27. One of the sick pigs died 

 on October 23 and another on October 26 ; only one of the three recov- 

 ered, which, as I learned afterwards from Mr. Kennedy, was doing well 

 and was again with the herd. Of the latter, only one animal exhibited 

 once slight syinptoms as if affected — it coughed some — and although my 

 advice to separate it from the herd was not complied with, no further 

 developments have taken place. Tlie sick animal which recovered had 

 only a comparatively slight attack of the disease, and with the care be- 

 stowed upon it — a clean, spacious pen, clean water, and clean food — 



