302 VETERINARY HYGIENE 



contagious, direct infection occurring from animal to animal or 

 by mediate methods, e.g., by food, water, &c., but even this appears 

 to be doubtful. It seems that the disease is not transmissible from 

 one animal to another either by contact or by experimental inocula- 

 tion. Many observers have noted that of several dogs in a house- 

 hold only one may be affected. Baird, who had considerable experi- 

 ence with the disease in Edinburgh in 1896 to 1898, repeatedly 

 noticed this peculiarity, and also that it occurred in localities, so that 

 when one outbreak became as it were exhausted, the disease ap- 

 peared elsewhere in the city, outside of which it was rarely met with. 



The disease is to be met with in practically all parts of the 

 United Kingdom, but it was especially prevalent about 1898. The 

 type of disease appears to vary to some extent, the average course 

 being 8 to 10 days, but in very severe cases it may be only 4 to 6 

 days. The mortality rate is extremely high. Of 42 cases treated 

 by Klett 32 died. Dogs of all ages and of any breed are susceptible. 



PREVENTIVE MEASURES cannot be suggested with any degree 

 of confidence owing to our insufficient knowledge concerning the 

 etiology of the disease and its methods of transmission. Though 

 a connection between the house garbage bucket, which is undoubt- 

 edly the cause of many cases of gastritis or " ptomaine " poisoning, 

 and this specific disease has never been demonstrated, every effort 

 should be made to confine dogs to the house until the refuse con- 

 tainer has been emptied and removed. 



SWINE FEVER. 



Swine fever (hog cholera, pig typhoid) is a highly contagious 

 disease of the pig caused by an ultravisible virus (Deschweinitz 

 and Dorset, 1913) and is of a typhoid-like nature, lesions due to 

 secondary organisms, so-called " swine fever bacilli," being present 

 with great constancy in the alimentary tract. The latter are normal 

 intestinal inhabitants which exert pathogenic activity when the body 

 is invaded by the ultravisible virus. The pig is the only animal 

 susceptible. 



Swine fever is epizootic in America, the United Kingdom, and 

 in Europe generally. It is enzootic in some districts, while others 

 keep remarkably free from it. Available evidence points to its 

 having been introduced from the Continent at a date prior to 1858 

 and the disease in a short time assumed formidable proportions. 

 Since that time swine fever has been constantly present in the 

 British Isles and the problem of complete eradication has not yet 

 been solved. An idea of its ravages may be gained from the follow- 



