132 HOG CHOLERA 



vidual methods of preparing and testing. Dosage 

 is based on weight, and one not accustomed to 

 estimating weights of hogs should weigh one or 

 more before beginning work, for a common and 

 disastrous error is to estimate far too low, and 

 to give correspondingly small doses of serum. 

 Not infrequently we have known weights to be 

 estimated at less than half what they actually 

 were. We believe a common error in dosing, and 

 one for which labels are frequently responsible, 

 consists of giving all hogs above a certain weight 

 a fixed quantity of serum. Thus on one label we 

 read: "Hogs 180 pounds and over, 75 mils," A 

 hog weighing 180 pounds may properly receive 

 75 mils of average serum, but one weighing 500 

 pounds will not be adequately protected by that 

 quantity. Under all conditions under which it is 

 known or suspected that the hogs have resistance 

 below the average, it is a wise precaution to in- 

 crease the dose measurably. In badly infected 

 herds it should be doubled. 



If serum is carefully administered, with due 

 precautions regarding rapid absorption, it is prac- 

 tically impossible to overdose, and there is no dis- 

 ease or condition of swine, so far as we know, that 

 even an unnecessarily large dose of serum alone 

 will affect unfavorably. Thus in case of suspected 

 hog cholera, in which the diagnosis cannot be 

 clearly established, it may, and should be, admin- 



