METHODS OF USING ANTI-HOG-CHOLERA SEBUM 149 



die of "vaccination cholera " when he has his herd 

 immunized; he may even view a more serious 

 "serum break " complacently, but if his swine re- 

 ceive simultaneous treatment as shoats and die of 

 hog cholera when they are about ready for market, 

 he has a real grievance, which he will be slow to 

 forget. It is fully as important that virus shall be 

 virulent as it is that serum shall be potent. 



"Hemorrhagic septicemia" forms a convenient 

 and altogether too common alibi for both ' ' serum 

 breaks " and "virus breaks." If either occurs 

 (and disease which is really hog cholera is called 

 "hemorrhagic septicemia"), this automatically 

 absolves from all blame the serum producer who 

 sells impotent serum or inert virus ; it excuses the 

 man who abuses the products in administering 

 them, as well as the breeder who subjects his ani- 

 mals to improper care during the resulting reac- 

 tion. The only defect in such an alibi is that it 

 does not save the hogs or tell us what really kills 

 them. When hogs kept under average farm con- 

 ditions receive simultaneous treatment and any 

 considerable number of them develop febrile dis- 

 ease during the following three weeks, unless a 

 cause other than "hemorrhagic septicemia" is 

 obvious the chances are ten to one that the primary 

 cause of the disease is hog cholera virus. Under 

 such conditions no other cause can be accepted 

 unless negative filtration experiments, requiring 



