REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



189 



Number and dates of original infections of hog cholera, etc. Continued. 



Whether the outbreak which occurred in Ohio in 1833 was the 

 first introduction of hog cholera in this country or not can not now 

 be determined. It seems reasonably certain, however, that the con- 

 tagion was imported from Europe with some of the animals that were 

 brought from there to improve our breeds of swine. The investiga- 

 tions made in England and on the continent during the last year 

 demonstrate that the swine fever of Great Britain is identical with 

 our hog cholera, and tfyat this disease is also widely scattered over 

 the continent of Europe. This being the case, it would appear much 

 more likely that the contagion was imported from there, as we know 

 occurred with the contagion of pleuro-pneumonia of cattle, than that 

 it appeared spontaneously or was developed by the conditions of life 

 in this country. Having been once introduced it spread gradually, 

 following the lines of commerce and being for a long time confined 

 to them, until, extending step by step, it has at one time or another 

 invaded every section of the country in which swine raising is a 

 prominent industry. 



Dr. George Button, of Aurora, Ind., in 1858, wrote as follows : 



I have seen notices of this disease prevailing in the States of Illinois, Kentucky, 

 Indiana, Ohio, New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. It has pre- 

 vailed extremely in Indiana, particularly in Dearborn, Ohio, Ripley, Rush, Decatur, 

 Brown, Bartholomew, Shelby, Johnson, Morgan, Marion, Boone, Posey, and Sulli- 

 van Counties. It has also prevailed in Campbell. Kenton, Boone, Gallatin, Carroll, 

 Breckinridge, Bullitt, Bath, Henry, Henderson, Nicholas, Livingston, Union, and 

 Crittenden Counties, Kentucky. . It has also prevailed in Hamilton, Butler, Clinton, 

 Fayette, and Clermont Counties, Ohio. Also in different portions of Illinois, and 

 very severely in Wayne, White, and Gallatin Counties. It has also prevailed in the 

 State of New York. The Ohio Farmer for January 3, 1857, quoting from the Buf- 

 falo Republic in regard to the extensive prevalence of the disease, says that "In 

 western New York, especially, we learn it has been very fatal, but is now over. In 

 conversation with one of the most extensive dealers in the neighborhood, a day or 

 two since, he informs us that about six weeks ago he lost about four hundred hogs in 

 a very short space of time. . A distiller in Jordan, during the month of September, 

 lost fourteen hundred, which cost, in addition, over $1,000 to haye them buried. In 

 Rochester, at all the principal points, and even among the farmers, the mortality 

 has exceeded anything ever before heard of. A butcher in this city not long since 

 purchased $500 worth of fat hogs, but they died so rapidly on his hands that he 

 scarcely realized $75 on the investment." The Worcester (Mass.) Spy reports that 

 many farmers in that city and vicinity are losing their swine by the mysterious 



