530 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. XLI. 



If these directions be minutely attended to, tlie animals will generally be 

 found healthy, for prevention is better than cure, and they are seldom 

 attacked with serious disease. In such case, however, we recommend 

 the owner to apply at once to the leech ; or else to give those remedies 

 which will be detailed in the history of swine, which is intended to form 

 part of the Farmer's Series. 



They are, however, not uncommonly seized with surfeit and indigestion, 

 from being allowed to gorge themselves with food; but this may generally 

 be removed by moderate abstinence, and giving nothing to them for a day 

 or two but a warm wash, which should be of a scouring nature — as bran 

 or pollard, with water, and without any thing solid. Soap-suds have indeed 

 been recommended to be put amongst it, as it operates like physic to empty 

 the bowels *. The better mode of avoiding it is, however, to feed them 

 regularly at stated times, and to remove the food so soon as they have 

 eaten enough. 



They often also suffer from eruptions in the skin, which usually break 

 out at first in their ears, and, if not attended to, sometimes spread over the 

 body into cutaneous pustules, occasioning violent itching, and finally scabs. 

 This arises more generally from want of air and attention to cleanliness in 

 their styes than from any other cause, though it sometimes also occurs 

 from being fed too high on heating food, as well as from the opposite effect 

 of starvation ; but when the first symptoms appear — which will be readily 

 known by their scratching — if an ounce of sulphur and nitre be mixed 

 once a-day in the food of a large hog, it will soon restore the skin to its 

 natural state. It sometimes, however, happens — particularly in the breeds 

 of large, lop-eared hogs — that the neck and ears become ulcerated ; in 

 which case they should be anointed, every second or third day, with a pre- 

 paration made of equal parts of mutton suet and tar melted together over 

 a gentle fire, and incorporated with a small quantity of the flour of sulphur. 



If not conquered by these means, the animal should be separated from 

 the rest of the herd and washed thoroughly with strong soap-ley ; after 

 which the following ointment has been recommended t: — 



" Incorporate one ounce of the flour of sulphur with two drachms of fresh pulverized 

 hellebore, three ounces of hog's-lard, and half an ounce of the water of kali (as pre- 

 pared at the chemist's), so as to form a salve." 



The murrain — a species of leprosy — is indicated by the animal holding- 

 down its head, staggering, having a secretion of viscid matter itisuing from 

 the eyes, and being affected with much shortness of breatli. It arises 

 chiefly in hot seasons, in consequence of inflammation of the blood, and 

 the best preventive is to keep the animals cool, without allowing any car- 

 rion to form' part of their food. A simple remedy is, indeed, that of — 



"A handful of nettles with half a pound of flour of sulphur, a quarter of a pound, 

 each, of elecampane, and pulverized aniseeds, and three ounces of liquorice, boiled 

 together in a gallon of table-beer." 



To be given with milk, in six or eight doses ; or, about a pint at each 

 time. 



The measles are also very prevalent, though seldom fatal ; and, if not 

 checked, affect the grain of the meat ; which may be commonly seen in 

 the shops of a faded colour, and the flesh punctured as it were with small 

 holes, or distensions of the fibre. The commencement of the disease ap- 



* Parkinson's Survey of Huntingdonshire, p. 259. 

 t Annals of Agriculture, vol, xv. 



