48 DISEASES OF SWINE AND OTHER ANIMALS. 



and even of hogs or pigs that have been the least exposed to tlie con- 

 tagion, or may possibly constitute the bearers of the same, must be 

 effectively prohibited. 2. Every one who loses a hog or pig by swdne- 

 plague must be compelled by laAv to bury the same immediate^, or as 

 soon as it is dead, at least foiu' feet deep, or else to cremate the carcass 

 at once, so that the contagious or infectious principle may be thoroughly 

 destroyed, and not be carried by dogs, wolves, rats, crows, &c., to other 

 places. 



Another thing may yet be mentioned, which, if ])roperly executed, 

 will at least aid very materially in preventing the disease; that is, to 

 give all food either in clean troughs, or if corn in the ear is fed, to throw 

 it on a wooden i)latform which can be swept clean before each feeding. 



9. TREATMENT. 



If the cause and the nature of the morbid process and the character 

 and the importance of the morbid changes are taken into projier con- 

 sideration, it cannot be expected that a therapeutic treatment will be of 

 much avail in a fully developed case of swine-plague. " Specific" reme- 

 dies, such as are advertised in column advertisements in certain news- 

 papers, and warranted to be infallible, or to cure every case, can do no 

 good whatever. They are a downright fraud, and serve only to draw 

 the money out of the pockets of the despairing farmer, who is ready to 

 catch at any straw. No ciu-e has ever been found for glanders, anthrax, 

 and cattle-plague, diseases that have been known for more than two 

 thousand years, and that have been investigated again and again by 

 the most learned veterinarians and the best practitioners of Europe, 

 and yet there is to-day not even a prospect that a treatment will ever be 

 discovered to which those diseases, once fully developed, will yield. 

 Neither is there any prospect or iirobabdity that fully developed swine- 

 plague will ever yield to treatment. It is true that the hacilli suis and 

 their germs can be killed or destroyed if outside of the animal organism, 

 or within reach on the surface of the animal's body. Almost any known 

 disinfectant — carbolic acid, thymic acid, chloride of lime, creosote, and 

 a great many others — will destroy them. But the hacilli and their germs 

 are not on the surface of the body, except in such parts of the skin and 

 accessible mucous membranes (conjunctiva and gums) that may happen 

 to have become affected by the morbid process. They are inside of the 

 organism, and not only in every jjart and tissue morbidly affected, in 

 every morbid product, and in every lymphatic gland, but they are also in 

 every drop of blood and in every i)articlc of a drop of blood circulating 

 in the whole organism. Who, I would like to ask, will have the audacity 

 to assert that he is able to destroy those hacilli and their germs without 

 disturbing the economy of the animal organism to such an extent as to 

 cause the inuaediate death of the animal? But even if means should 

 be found by which these hacilli and their germs can be destroyed with- 

 out serious injury to the animal, a destruction of the same will not be 

 sufficient to effect a cure. Important morbid changes must be repjaii'ed; 

 extensive embolism is existing in some very vital organs ; a rapid, pro- 

 liferous growth of morbid cells has set in; some of the intestines (cae- 

 cum and colon) may have become i^erforated; exudations have been 

 deposited in the lungs, in the thoracic cavity, in the pericardium, and in 

 the abdominal cavity; the heart itself may have been morbidly changed, 

 and eveiy lyiii]>hatic gland in the whole organism become diseased, 

 llow, I would like to know, will those (]uacks who advertise their "Sure 

 Cure" and their high-sounding " Specifics" to swindle the farmer out of 



