114 DISEASES OF SWINE AND OTHEi: ANIMALS. 



River Valley tlie disease lias prevailed during the present season to 

 miicli less extent than for several years past. This is due in i>art to the 

 fact that there are not so many hogs here as formerly — great loss having 

 gTeatly discouraged hog-raising, a branch of agricultural industry here- 

 tofore liaramouut to every other interest. 



The less prevalence of the disease is also due in part to the increased 

 facilities for selling to summer packers ; the approach of the complaint 

 in ajij^ given locality being the signal for the selling of every marketable 

 animal. 



In these hog-growing districts, the surface of the country is quite fiat, 

 affording very imperfect natiu'al drainage, and as a consequence much 

 stagnant water prevails. The soil is a mixture of clay and sand. The 

 food is mainly corn, with some clover during the summer months, the 

 aniutals often subsisting ui^on corn, alone from the time of birth to that 

 of slaughter. 



In the county of Bartholomew there are several " grease factories," 

 where they render dead animals, and it is estimated that during the 

 year 1876 there were rendered at these several factories no less than one 

 hundred thousand animals that died of the disease in that and adja- 

 cent counties. 



It is the concurrent testimony of the leading and most intelligent ob- 

 servers, whose experience and observation have been most extensive, 

 that while the disorder prevails more or less at all seasons of the year, 

 it prevails to the greatest extent and with most fatal effect dming the 

 dry months of the fall season, and again during the last winter and first 

 months of spring — February and March. 



SYMPTOMS OF THE DISEASE. 



A greater degree of uniformity was found to exist in the symptoms 

 and character of the disease than was anticipated at the beginning of 

 the investigation. The first sym])toms that usually attract the atten- 

 tion of the farmer, indicating ai)proaching disease, is a wheezing cough, 

 coupled with a disposition to mope. During this period the animal 

 stands about as if in a " brown study," with its ears dropped and its 

 eyes inclined to water or matter. 



" Following in the usual succession of symptoms comes a failure in the 

 appetite, with occasional vomiting and diarrhea, although the two last- 

 named symptoms constitute an exception, to which constipation is the 

 rule. 



A complete failure in the appetite, intense thirst, with increased tem- 

 perature of the body, indicates the supervention of the febrile and in- 

 flammatory stage of the disease. During this stage the temperature 

 not infrequently rises as high as 107*^ F., as indicated by the introduc- 

 tion of the thermometer into the rectum of the animal. The cough in- 

 creases ; the breathing becomes more accelerated and laborious ; the 

 respii'atory movements are scarcely observable in the walls of the chest, 

 but become conspicuous at the flank, and range from 30 to CO inspira- 

 tiojis to the muiuco ; the arterial ch'culation is increased in frequency 

 and diminished in volume. Petechial eruption is often observed on the 

 skin and is most distinctly observable on white animals. This is due to 

 extravasated blood from the capillaries into the tissues, which, on under- 

 going decomposition, produces idceration of the skin in the future} 

 course of the disease, particularly if the animal becomes convalescent. 



in the last stage the animal becomes very weak; staggers in gait, if 

 (iblc to rise at all; refuses both food and drink; falls in temperature, 



