40 SWINE DISEASES 



and paralysis. Death may occur within a few hours or 

 in two or three days. Some of the affected animals may 

 recover. 



Treatment. In the early stages emetics should be 

 given until vomition is produced. Later acidulated 

 water and 'oleaginous purgatives will be of value. 



Phosphorous 



In some sections of the country phosphorous com- 

 pounds are used in destroying gophers, squirrels, and 

 other similar animals, and not infrequently swine obtain 

 a sufficient quantity of the poison to produce grave 

 disturbances and even death. 



Lesions. The buccal, pharyngeal, gastric, and in- 

 testinal mucosa show inflammation. The liver and 

 kidneys are enlarged, due to fatty degeneration of their 

 parenchyma, and the heart also is usually affected by 

 fatty changes. The content of stomach and bowel are 

 phosphorescent when examined in the dark, and a dis- 

 tinct phosphorous odor emanates from the stomach and 

 bowel when these organs are opened. 



Symptoms. Intense thirst, difficult deglutition, 

 vomition, and colicky pains, associated with weakness 

 and incoordination, are produced by phosphorous poison- 

 ing. 



Treatment. Emetics and the administration of 

 turpentine in mucilaginous substances, when applied 

 energetically, will sometimes save the patient. 



Xanthium Canadense (Cocklebur) 



Cocklebur poisoning prevails more or less extensively 

 in the Missouri Valley during the early spring months. 

 Just as the two cotyledons push through the ground is 

 the only time in the development of the cocklebur that 

 it is poisonous, or possibly swine eat the plant only during 

 this stage of development. The writer assisted in an 

 investigation of the effect of young cockleburs when 

 eaten by swine at the Kansas Agricultural Experiment 

 Station in 1899. Quantities of the young plants were 



