46 DISEASES OF SWINE AND OTHER ANIMALS. 



days of October, a 1'ariner, J. T. M., living near Tolono, sold .sixty-seven 

 hogs (some, if not all of tliem, diseased and a few of them already in a 

 dynig condition) for two cents a ]ioiind, to ha shipped to Chicago. I 

 conld cite unmerons instances, but I think it is not necessary, because 

 these facts are known to every one where swine-plague is prevailing. 

 Besides, in nearly every little town in the neighborhood of which cases 

 of swine-plague are of frequent occurrence, is a rendering establishment 

 to Avhich dead hogs are brought. These establishments pay one cent a 

 pound, and the farmers haul their dead hogs, sometimes ten or hfteeu 

 miles, in open wagons, past farms, barns, and hog-lots, and disseminate 

 thereby the germs of the disease through the whole country. The trans- 

 portation of dead hogs by wagon, I admit, might be stopped by State 

 laws, but the latter prove usually to be inelfective where railroad com- 

 panies (inter-State and iuteruational traffic) are concerned. I include 

 international traffic, because swine-plague is or has been prevailing in 

 Europe. Besides that, there are other contagious diseases Avhich spread 

 exclusively by means of their contagion — I will mention only glanders, 

 foot and mouth disease or aphtha?, and pleiu-o-pneumonia of cattle — and 

 can be stamped out and be prevented from spreading only bj'" efficient 

 Congressional legislation. Pleuro -pneumonia particularly deserves spe- 

 cial attention. It has already gained a firm foothold in. the East, and 

 would undoubtedly invade the West very soon, or would have done so 

 long ago, if the traffic in cattle were from East to West instead of from 

 West to East. It may, however, at any time be carried to the West by 

 shipments of blooded cattle from the East the same as it was imi^orted 

 fi'om Holland to ISTew Tork, and having once entered any of the Western 

 States or Territories it will soon find ample means to spread toward the 

 East again and to sweep the whole country. If it comes to that it will 

 prove to be much more disastrous to the live-stock interest of the United 

 States than swine-plague or any other contagious disease. 



If any transportation of, or traffic in, diseased and dead swine is ef- 

 fectually prohibited by proper laws, a spreading of the swine-])lague on 

 a large scale will be impossible, and its ravages will remain limited to 

 localities where the disease-germs have not been destroyed, and been 

 preserved till the same find sufficient food again. In order to prevent 

 such a local spreading, two remedies may be resorted to. The one is a 

 radical one, and consists in destroying every sick hog or pig immediately, 

 wherever the disease makes its api)earance, and in disinfecting the in- 

 fected premises by such means as are the most effective and the most 

 practicable. If this is done, and if healthy hogs are kept away from 

 such a locality, say for one month after the diseased animals have been 

 destroyed, and the sties, i)ens, &c., disinfected with chloride of lime or 

 carbolic acid, and the yards plowed, &c., the disease will be stamped 

 out. I know that this is a violent vray of dealing with the plague, but 

 in the end it may prove to be by far the cheapest. The other remedj' is 

 more of a palliative character, and may be substituted if swine-plague, 

 as is now the case, is prevailing almost everywhere, or in cases in which 

 the radical measures are considered as too severe and too sweeping. It 

 consists in a perfect isolation of every diseased herd, not only during 

 the actual existence of the i)lague but for some time, say one month, 

 after the occurrence of tlie last case of sickness, and after the sties and 

 pons have been thoroughly cleaned and disinfected with carbolic acid 

 or other disinfectants of equal efficiency, and the j^ards, &c., plowed. 

 Old straw-stacks, &c., must be burned, or rapidly converted into ma- 

 nure. It is also A'cry essential that diseased animals are not allowed any 

 access to running water, streamlets, or creeks accessible to other healthy 



