DISEASES OF SWINE AND OTHER ANIMALS. 137 



the same -way, and when I visited the farm fifty ont of eighty head had 

 l)een cnt off in this useless and unprofitable way. Three sick hogs were 

 killed and dissected. The lungs were white, but showed no signs of or- 

 ganic disease. The kidneys were light colored and showed some irrita- 

 tion in tubules ; all internal viscera without organic disease. There was 

 a lack of red corpuscles in muscular tissue, which appeared almost white. 

 The disease, in this case, was simply starvation. As yet no contagious 

 disease has appeared in the herd, but the hogs were in such a condition 

 that if exposed to the slightest miasma they would inevitably contract 

 any contagious disease, and, with the debilitated blood to begin with, 

 would rapidly succumb to it. Now, I assert that althougli the drove 

 was suppUed with abundance of food in kind, yet it was not the nour- 

 ishment demanded. There was an excess of certain constituents and 

 absence of others necessary to health. Every article of food lurnished 

 tliis drove contained acid.' This was the case with the clover, grass, 

 and slops given them. The water was poisonous also, and they were 

 deprived of the alkaline salts necessary to life. The small quantity 

 they might have obtained from the ground was made inaccessible by 

 the rings in their noses. 



In this drove the tongues of the hogs were large, white, and flabby, 

 indicating plainly the need of change of diet. There are many other 

 errors in diet which will be alluded to when we come to speak of the 

 predisposing: causes — errors which do not cause death, but which render 

 the hof? peculiarly liable to contract contagious diseases, and also in- 

 crease the exjiense of feeding. 



I will now give an illustration of a case where too much care, misdi- 

 rected, caused disease and death : Mr. C. builds a so-called model pig- 

 pen. It is low and tight ; the sun and air are exclmled ; the floor is of 

 boards, and is raised above the gTOund. To prevent dampness, straw is 

 furnished liberally to keep the hogs warm. The feed-lot is exposed to 

 the north and west winds. The hogs, sleeping in this damp place, with 

 cold boards under them, pack closely together in the damp straw, for, no 

 matter how dry the straw may be when put in, in the course of a few 

 hours it will be wet and loaded with ammonia. Mark the results. At 

 reveille they come from their sheltered house wet and heated, pass into 

 the feed-lot exr>osed to the bleak nortli wind or cold rain from the west, 

 and the natural consequence is coughs, colds, bronchitis, jileurisy, lung- 

 fever, inflammation or irritation of some internal viscera from the sud- 

 den check given to perspiration, or sudden change of temperature by 

 the inhaled atmosphere. If the exposm-e is not sufticient to cause a 

 fatal inflammation, it will cause a bronchial irritation, as shown by 

 cough. The system is vitiated, and any contagious disease prevailing 

 in the vicinity is liable to attack the drove. The owner reports the 

 cough as existing- for one or two months as the first symptoms. In this 

 case the cough was caused by errors in care, and was but a symptom 

 telling the farmer that his swine had contracted a cold, and that this 

 disorder of the system would debilitate and render them more liable to 

 contract any contagious disease to which they were exposed. 



We will iiow take u]) in their (uxler the three diseases which come 

 properly under the title of ''hog-cholera," that is the diseases which an- 

 swer to the dclinition we have given of hog-cholera. AVe do not claim 

 that tliese are the only contagious diseases Avhich are kiu)wn to cause 

 death. Thcic may have been others in ]>;ist years, or even in this year, 

 l)ut They <lid not come under my ol)scr\:ition, and having accurate 

 reports from many i)rominent and intelligent stockmen in all the West- 

 ern States, detailing the symptoms in their infected hogs, 1 can but con- 



