158 BEPOBT OP THE BUKEATJ OF ANTMAL INDUSTRY. 



(7) Linseed oil and turpentine. Nos. 383 and 399 (weight, 50 to 60 pounds) received 

 each 2 ounces oil and one-sixth ounce turpentine. No effect. No. 383 received, 

 five days later, 4 ounces oil and one-sixth ounce turpentine. No. 399 received, five 

 days later, 4 ounces oil and one-third ounce turpentine. Both were made sick for 

 a day or two. No catharsis. 



These trials show how difficult it is to cause movement of the large 

 bowels in swine, and they also suggest that this very sluggishness may 

 make them susceptible to inflammation and ulcerations such as we 

 find in hog cholera and frequently in swine plague. 



It was our intention to obtain a cathartic which would freely purge 

 without causing any inflammation or irritation of the large intestine. 

 Of those tried, calomel is the only available one. This must be care- 

 fully given, as it may produce the very inflammation which it is de- 

 signed to check, and destroy life, as was actually done in the second 

 experiment. 



Concerning calomel, Ellenberger* says: 



Calomel (hi combination with castor-oil), is especially serviceable with swine; with 

 larger animals when the contents of the intestinal canal are to be disinfected and 

 in inflammatory fevers. It should be given to ruminants with the greatest caution. 



It was our purpose to try calomel after having made these trials 

 upon health^ animals, when the disease died out at the Experiment 

 Station and further investigations had to be postponed. 



If the large intestine has been promptly evacuated the next im- 

 portant step is to give only that food which leaves but little irritat- 

 ing waste to pass into the large bowel, such as milk and gruels. In 

 short, it is best to use only boiled or scalded food so as to help the 

 process of digestion as much as possible. It may be necessary to 

 repeat the dose of calomel after a few days. As to this mode of 

 treatment our experience is not sufficient to warrant any positive 

 statements, and it is simply suggested to those who wish to run the 

 risk of treating this disease. 



There is another line of preventive and curative treatment which 

 may prove valuable in the future, namely, the feeding of substances 

 with the daily food which, while not injurious to the animal itself, 

 may keep in check the multiplication of the virus in the intestine by 

 an antiseptic action. It is very important, however, to bear in mind 

 that a large number of those medicines which act as disinfectants 

 and antiseptics are likewise injurious or even poisonous to the ani- 

 mal itself. A too abundant feeding of such material, while it may 

 reduce the mortality and lessen the severity of the disease in the 

 sick, is liable to cause injury to liver, kidneys, and other vital or- 

 gans whereby the nutrition of the animal may be permanently in- 

 jured. Such medicines, when carelessly given to healthy animals 

 as preventives, may irritate the large bowel sufficiently to reduce 

 its vitality and power of resistance when the disease actually appears. 

 The proper medicine to feed must therefore be selected with care, 

 and we trust that experiments to this effect may be carried on at the 

 Experiment Station at an early date. 



There is another line of treatment which demands attention, namely, 

 the introduction of a sufficient amount of some disinfectant into the 

 body to be absorbed, and thus to make the whole body oppose the 

 multiplication of bacteria. Koch tried this method by injecting 

 mercuric chloride into guinea-pigs and afterwards inoculating them 

 with anthrax bacilli. The animals all took the disease and died. 



At the laboratory of the Bureau mercuric iodide, a still more pow- 



* Lehrlmch d. allgemeinen Therapie d. Haussdugethiere, 1885, p. 656. 



