DISEASES OF SWIXE AND OTHER ANIMALS. 9 



organs — sucli as the heart — the disease frequently terminates fatally in 

 a few days, and sometimes even within twenty-four hours ; but when 

 the attack is of a mild character, and the heart is not seriously affected, 

 and the animal is naturally strong and vigorous, one or two weeks 

 usually intervene before death ensues. If the termination is not fatal, 

 convalescence requires an equal and not unfrequently a much longer 

 time. A i^erfect recovery seldom occurs ; in most cases some lasting 

 disorder remains behind and more or less interferes with the growth 

 and fattening of the animal. Those that do recover make but very poor 

 retiu-ns for the food consumed ; hence from a i^ecuniary standpoint it 

 makes but little diiference to the owner whether the animal recovers or 

 not. The attack is always more violent and fatal when large numbers 

 of animals are closely confined together in small and dirty inclosures or 

 in illy ventilated and filthy -pens. 



The disease can have its seat in many different organs or parts of the 

 body, and therefore produces a great variety of morbid changes. This 

 accounts for its different aspect in different animals. In some cases the 

 principal seat of the disease may be in the organs of respiration and 

 circulation, and in others in the intestinal canal and organs of digestion. 

 Death may therefore be the result of different causes in diilerent cases. 

 In some cases it results from a cessation of the functions of the heart, 

 the lungs, «^c., and in others it is in consequence of the inability of 

 entirely different organs to perform their allotted functions. This being 

 the case, the ])ost-mortem appearances would necessarily greatly vary, 

 but in all animals similarly affected the lesions and morbid changes 

 were found identical. 



Perhaps the most important point to be determined by this investiga- 

 tion was the contagious or non-contagious character of the disease. In 

 order to do tliis a series of exi>eriments were instituted and conducted 

 solely with this end in view, by Drs. Detmers and Law. These ex- 

 periments resulted in determining the fact that the disease is both 

 infectious and contagious, and that it is not confined alone to swine, but 

 that other animals may contract it in a mild form and retransmit it to 

 swine in its most virulent and malignant character. 



On the Cth day of September, Dr. Detmers fed a portion of the stom- 

 ach, the ccecum, and the spleen of a pig that had died on that day to two 

 healthy pigs. On the 19th of the same month they showed signs of ill- 

 ness, and the symptoms continued to grow in intensity until the 23d, 

 when, finding that the animal must die in a few hours, one of them was 

 killed by bleeding. The other pig was found dead in the pen on the 

 morning of September 30. The symptoms and i^o^t mortem appearances 

 were those of swine-plague, as they revealed the same lesions as those 

 observed in an examination of the pig from which the diseased products 

 had been taken for the purpose of infection. On tlie 24th day of Sep- 

 tember, the day following the death of the first pig, a healthy pig of 



