DISEASES OF SWINE AND OTHER ANIMALS. 43 



his hard-earned dollars aud cents — how, I ask, will those quacks restore, 

 repair, stop, aud reduce all those morbid changes? 



Still, I do not wish to say that a rational treatment can do no good; 

 on the contrary, it may in many cases avert the worst and most fatal 

 morbid changes, and may thereby aid nature considerably in effecting 

 a recovery in all those cases m which the disease presents itself in a mild 

 form, and in which very dangerous or irreparable morbid changes have 

 not yet taken place. A good dietetical treatment, however, including a 

 strict observation of sanitary principles, is of much more uuportance 

 than the use of medicines. In the first place, the sick animals, if possi- 

 ble, should be kept one by one in separate pens. The latter, if mov- 

 able — movable ones, i)erhaps six to eight feet square and without a 

 floor, are preferable — ought to be moved once a day, at noon, or after the 

 dew has disappeared from the grass ; if the pens are not movable, they 

 must be kept scrupulously clean, because a pig affected Avith swine- 

 plague has a vitiated appetite, and eats its own excrements and those 

 of others, and, as those excrements contain innumerable bacilU and their 

 germs, will add thereby fuel to the flame ; in other words, will increase 

 the extent and the mahgnancy of the morbid process by introducing 

 into the organism more and more of the infectious principle. The food 

 given ought to be clean, of the very best quahty and easy of digestion, 

 and the water for drinking must bo clean and fresh, be supphed three 

 times a day in a clean trough, and be drawn each time, if possible, from a 

 deep well. Water from ponds and water that has been standing in open 

 vessels, and that may possibly have become contaminated with the infec- 

 tious principle, should not be used. If the diseased animal has any 

 wounds or lesions, they must be washed or dressed from one to three 

 times a day with diluted carbohc acid or other equally effective disin- 

 fectants. 



Concerning a therapeutic treatment, I have made several experiments, 

 the princij^al ones of which I will relate, not because they are illustra- 

 tive of success, as they are not, but because some interesting features 

 of the disease wiU be brought to light. A therapeutic treatment — that 

 is, as far as my experiments are able to show — has not been very success- 

 ful, but the facts will speak for themselves. 



1. EXPEREMENTS AT MY EXPEREMENTAL STATION, THE VETERINARY 

 HOSPITAL OF THE ILLINOIS INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY. 



October 8. — At 5.30 o'clock, p. m., received from Mr. J. A. Hossack 

 eight diseased swine of various size and age for experimental treatment. 

 Thej' were put in pen No. 3, which had been thoroughly cleaned, and 

 were fed three times a day Avith corn in the ear, and provided with clean 

 water for drinking. I had engaged and had comfortable room for only 

 three or four, but Mr. Cossack thought best to bring me every sick an- 

 imal he had at that time on his place. So it happened that five of the 

 pigs were in an almost dvuig condition when they arrived. I numbered 

 them I, II, III, IV, Y, VI, VII, and VIII. The therapeutic treatment 

 (consisted in giving three times a day about ten drops of carbolic acid 

 in the water lor drinking for each hundred pounds of hve weight. In 

 deciding upon that amount, it was taken into consideration that some 

 of the water woidd remain luiconsumed. The troughs were emptied 

 aud cleaned each time before fresh water was put in. 



October 9, — Pig 1, a small animal, dead. Fost-mortcm examination was 

 made by Dr. rreutice, and revealed the usual morbid changes — hepati- 

 4 sw 



