DISEASES OF SWINE AND OTHER ANIMALS. 47 



swine. Those healtliy liogs and j^igs wliicli are wituiii the po.s.sible intlu- 

 euce of tlie contagious or infectious principle, perlia])s on the same farm 

 or in the immediate neighborhood of a diseased herd, must be pro- 

 tected by special means. For these, I think, it will be best to make 

 movable pens^ say eight feet square, of common fence-boards (eleven 

 fence-boards will make a pen) ; put two animals in each pen ; place the 

 latter, if possible, on high and diy ground, but by no means in an old 

 hog-lot, on a manure-heap, or near a slough, and move each pen every 

 noon to a new place, until after all danger has ])assed. If this is done 

 the animals will not be comi^elled to eat their food soiled with excre- 

 ments, and as dry earth is a good disinfectant, an infection, very likely, 

 will not take place. Besides this, the troughs must always be cleaned 

 before water or food is put in, and the water for drinking must be fi'esh 

 and i)iu'e, or be drawn from a good well immediately before it is poured 

 into the troughs. Water from ponds, or that which has been exposed 

 in any way or manner to a contamination with the infectious principle, 

 must not be used. If all this is comx^Iied with, and the disease notwith- 

 standing should make its appearance and attack one or another of the 

 animals thus kept, very likely it will remain confined to that one pen. 



If the hogs or pigs cannot be treated in that way, it will be advisable 

 to keep every one shut up in its pen, or in a bare yard, from sundown 

 until the dew next morning has disappeared fi'om the grass, and to allow 

 neither sick hogs nor pigs, nor other animals, nor even persons, who 

 have been near or in contact with animals aflected with swine-plague, to 

 come near the animals intended to be protected. That good ventilation 

 and general cleanliness constitute valuable auxiliary measui'es of pre- 

 vention may not need any mentioning. The worst thing that possibly can 

 be done, if swine-plague is prevailing in the neighborhood, is to shelter 

 the hogs and pigs under or in an old straw or hay stack, because noth- 

 ing is more apt to absorb the contagious or infectious x)rinciple, and to 

 preserve it longer or more effectively than old straw, hay, or manure- 

 heaps composed mostly of hay or straw. It is even probable that the 

 contagion of swine-plague, hke that of some other contagious diseases, 

 if absorbed by, or clinging to, old straw or hay, &c., will remain effective 

 and a source of spreading the disease for months, and maybe for a year. 



TherapeuticaEy but little can be done to prevent an outbreak of swine- 

 plague. Where it is sufficient to destroy the infectious principle outside 

 of the animal organism, carbohc acid is effective, and, therefore, a good 

 disinfectant ; but where the contagious or infectious principle has akeady 

 entered the animal organism its value is doubtful. Still, wherever there 

 is cause to suspect that the food or the water for drinking may have be- 

 come contaminated with the contagion of swine-plague, it will be advis- 

 able to give every morning and evening some carbolic acid, say about 

 ten drops for each animal weighing from one hundred and twenty to one 

 hundred and fifty pounds, in the water for diinkiug ; and wherever there 

 is reason to suspect that the infectious i)rinciple may be floating in the 

 air, it will be advisable to treat every wound or scratch a hog or pig may 

 happen to have immediately with diluted carl)olic acid. During a time, 

 or in a neighborhood in which swine-plague is prevailing, care should be 

 talcen neither to ring nor to castrate any hog or pig, because every 

 Avound, no matter how small, is apt to become a port of entry ibr the 

 infectious priucii)le, and the very smallest amount of the latter is sufli- 

 cient to ])ro(luce the disease. 



Still, all these minor measures and precautions will avail but little 

 unless a dissemination of the infectious principle, or disease-germs, is 

 made impossible. 1. Any transportation of dead, sick, or infected swine, 



