40 DISEASES OF SWlNE AND OTHER ANIMALS. 



organs situated in the tliorax if the coiitasioii had been inocnlated or 

 been introduced into tlie system throuyli Avounds and absorbed by the 

 veins and lymi^hatics. 



Whether an inhahition of the contagious or infectious principle into 

 the respiratory jtassage or into the hmgs is sufficient to produce the 

 disease is doubtfuL One pig- (pig No. 1), an animal free from any lesions 

 or Tvounds whatever, has been exposed twice and has not contracted 

 tlie disease; but while exposed and immediately after its pen was moved 

 once a day, and as the pen was thus kept clean, and as dry earth is a 

 good disinfectant, it must be supposed that the animal was never obliged 

 to consume the contagious principle clinging to the excrements of the 

 diseased animals, neither with its food nor with its water for drinking. 

 Its trough was cleaned thi^ee times a day, and always before fresh water 

 was ])oured in. Pig B, however, was exposed only once, by being kept 

 together with iiig Xo. G, and contracted the disease in due time. But 

 the conditions were entirely different. Pen No. 3, in which both pigs 

 were kept, contains a wooden floor : pig B was put in soon after pig No. 

 5 had died, and the pen, otherwise always cleaned once a day, had been 

 left dii'ty (uncleaned) on purpose. So it happened that the ears of corn, 

 thrown on the floor for food, became soiled, though perhaps only slightly, 

 with the dung and the urine of dead pig No. 5 and diseased i^ig No. 6. 

 Pitrther, both pigs (B and No. G) tramped through the excrements and 

 soiled their feet, and, as pigs will do, went with their dirty feet into the 

 trough which contained the water for drinking. So it is but fair to suppose 

 that pig B contracted the disease, not by inhaling the contagion, but by 

 consuming the same with its food and water for drinking. Hence I have 

 come to the conclusion that swine-plague is probably not communicated 

 through the lungs by an inhalation of the atmosphere surrounding the 

 diseased animals or by simple contact, but that, in order to effect a com- 

 munication of the disease, the contagion or infectious x>rinciple must be 

 introduced directly into a wound within the reach of the veins and lym- 

 phatics, or be taken up by the digestive apparatus. This conclusion of 

 mine has been corroborated by several facts, some of which I had an 

 opportunity to observe myself, and some of which have been related to 

 me by reliable persons. To mention a few will suffice : Mr. Henry Yothy, 

 who lives four miles north of Urbana, informed me that his neighbor, 

 Mr. StickgTath, who lives only one hundred yards south of him, lost 

 every hog but one on his iilace; that he, Yothy, had nineteen head of 

 swine shut up in a yard, and has not lost a single animal, notwithstand- 

 ing StickgTath's diseased animals have been running at large, have 

 tramped all around Y'othy's pens, and come every day close to the 

 fence ; but that his, Yothy's, hogs have no lesions or wounds whatever, 

 and having remained separated from Stickgrath's hogs by a fence, had 

 no opportunity to consume food or water soiled with the excrements or 

 urine of the latter, and to become infected in that way. 



Mr. L. Harris, a few miles north of Champaign, kept his shoats and pigs 

 separate from his older hogs. Among the former, swine plague made its 

 appearance, and proved to be very fatal. They were kept in a yard 

 west of the house, and had access to a pasture to the west and an orchard 

 to the south. The peculiar, offensive smell emanating from that yard 

 was so marked that I ])erceived it several times very plainly when pass- 

 ing by, at a distance of half a mile or more, so it is to be supposed that 

 considerable contagion must have been floating in the air. The yard in 

 which Mr. Harris kept his old hogs (they were intended to be fattened 

 and were not allowed to run out into a pasture) was not over lifty yards 

 south or southeast of the yard occupied by the diseased and tlyiug shoats 



