DISEASES OF SWINE AND OTHER ANIMALS. 121 



that have j^oue through with the disease. We are inclined to accept 

 this opinion as of little consequence, for the reason that such as are fed 

 for pork do not afford a sufficient lapse of time to clearly demonstrate 

 this point: and, on the contrary, among breeding animals that are 

 allowed to live older, in which timely opportunity is given, our informa- 

 tion is that a second attack is not an unusual occurrence. 



HEREDITABY EFFECT OF THE DISEASE. 



Females having the disease when breeding almost invariably cast 

 their young. If they escape that accident, the offspring usually die 

 very soon after birth. Subsequent litters from the animal, after com- 

 pletely recovering from the disorder, do not appear to be wanting in 

 vigor, and do not exhibit a greater aptitude for the disease than other 

 animals. 



PREVENTION OF THE DISEASE. 



The widespread prevalence of the disease, its rapid course and dread- 

 ful fatality, warrant the opinion that measures of prevention, if discov- 

 ered and applied, wiU be much more beneficial in result than the discovery 

 of a successful line of treatment for the disease, unless that treatment 

 shall consist of some specific remedy, a practical use of which can be 

 made by the farmers in aU stages of the complaint. That such a remedy 

 will be discovered, we are of opinion, is not within the range of proba- 

 bility. The measures necessary to prevent disease in domestic animals 

 embrace witliin their range a careful study of their natural habits and 

 wants, and a strict observance of the laws of health that govern all 

 animal life, the principles of which are the same in their application to 

 the inferior animals as to man. Those errors aUuded to when considering 

 the cause of the disease, as, in our opinion, largely contributing to, if 

 not whoUy the cause of, its development, must be corrected. The idea 

 that swine are exempt from the ordinary laws governing health, and 

 will thrive under any and aU circumstances, must be abandoned. Forced 

 to keep pace in his superior development with the civilization of the age 

 in which he lives, he requires additional care in his management in 

 order to ward off the numerous iUs to which he is liable, many of which 

 were unlniown to his race in its unimproved state of nature. The food 

 of the animal should, at all times, consist of the gTeatest possible 

 variety; the water diank should be strictly i)ure; too many animals 

 should not be herded together; the young animals should be kept to 

 themselves ; frequent change of locahty, by shifting fi'om one field to 

 another; the frequent plowing up or burning over of the lots usually 

 denoted as hog-lots in order to disinfect them; frequent change of 

 sleeping-X)laces, and the removal and destruction of old, filthy bedding- 

 material. During the dry fall months, when the swine are running at 

 large, they shoidd be daily inspected, and at the approach of that period 

 when the succulent grass is giving place to the mature and dry, laxative 

 food, such as bran-mash or oil-cake; or aperient medicine, as hnseed-oil 

 or Glauber salts, given to counteract the constipating effect of the dry 

 grass; the watering-places daily inspected; if mnning in open fields 

 with high weeds and grass, they should be taken out at night and kept 

 from the cold, wet grass, and turned into woods, if there is such a place 

 available; they should ]>e kept Irom Aveedy and stubble fields during the 

 dry dusty period of the fall season, both day and night When confined 

 in close pens, these pens should be cleaned daily, and disinfected when 

 there is stench, by the use of copperas, chlorinated lime, or with dry, 



