216 DISEASES OF SWINE AND OTHEE ANIMALS. 



One of tlie greatest difficulties a fanner lias to encounter arises from having a large 

 number of certain kinds of stock, -whicli cannot safely l>o crowded, no matter how 

 complete may be his arrangements to grow them, or any one of them. 



Hogs, sheep, fowls, the silk-worm, &c., cannot be raised in large numbers together 

 without soon exhibiting a liability to epidemical and other diseases. The diseased 

 condition of the sheep at the close of the war obliged farmers to sell their flocks at the 

 lowest prices. All attempts to raise chickens in large numbers, or the silk-worm, havo 

 failed from large losses by epidemical diseases. And so with the human race. An 

 army generates camp-fever, measles, and other diseases, no matter how strictly every 

 sanitary regulation may be enforced. 



As a farmer, I found it was easy to raise twelve or fifteen hogs, but difficult when 

 the number Avas increased to fifty or eighty. I mentioned my exemption from- hog- 

 cholera, as I suppose from the regular salting with copperas, but I am satisfied that 

 as long as any farmer, from year to year, grows many hogs together, the hog-cholera 

 cannot bo eradicated. Few farmers understand this tendency to fatal diseases from 

 too great numbers, and I hope the commission may give it a thorough examination. 



ILLINOIS. 



Dr. Joseph Sybertz, V. S., Bellville, Saint Clair county, 111., contributes 

 the following paper on the disease commonly known as "hog-cholera": 



We must regard this affection of pigs as a disease peculiar to this species of the 

 fjimily suida, having close affinities with the scarlet fever of man, yet essentially dis- 

 tinct. Few diseases are designated with a greater number of names than this one. 

 For instance, it is called enteric fever, typhus, pig distemiier, epizootic influen'za of 

 swine, measles, scarlatina, gastro-enteritis, anthrax, &c. Some authorities advocate 

 the theory that the affection known as hog-cholera is in reality typhoid fever (abdom- 

 inal typhus). Veterinary authorities agree that it is a form of anthrax or carbun- 

 cular fever. But there is an essential difference between anthrax and typhoid fever. 



In the first-mentioned disease, the presence of hacteria in the blood is invariable, 

 these parasites, indeed, being considered the cause of the affection. In tyjihoid fever, 

 bacteria have never been discovered, either in the blood of the i)atient or in the char- 

 acteristic lesions of the disease, the determining symptoms in this affection being 

 ulceration of the glands of Peyer, as shown in j)ost-mortem examinations. Now, in all 

 forms of anthrax this ulceration is never seen, although mycosis (fungus) of the 

 intestines is frequently noticed. 



The line of demarkation between these affections is, then, sufficiently broad ; but to 

 which of them does hog-cholera belong ? 



Hog-cholera is a disease peculiar to pigs of this part of the country ; the virus is not 

 communicable to other domestic animals, so far as is ascertained up to this time by 

 the veterinary surgeons of this country. 



For the sake of brevity, I will, in dealing with the disease, call it by the conven- 

 tional or rather common name of hog-cholera. 



Hog-cholera is a contagious, febrile, and exanthematous disease, and embraces 

 scarlatina in degrees of virulence in all stages. 



Course of the disease. — a, stage of incubation ; 6, stage of florescence; o, stage of des- 

 quamation (scaling off). 



The contagion poisons the blood, and produces local inflammation and ulceration in 

 various parts of the system, though more frequently in some portions than in others. 

 The action of this contagion possesses the peculiarity that it affects chiefly the sklu 

 and the throat, and originates in both a dittuse inflammation. 



Symptoms in general. — First stage : Fever with a full and frequent pulse ; the pharynx 

 presents an exanthematous flush, but there is no efiiision ; general debility; appetite 

 smaller than in health; thirst increased; skin hot and dry; sometimes a x^rofuse 

 diarrhea, and in single subjects delirum or spasm. The urine remains of its natural 

 color. 



Second stage : More intense fever ; elevation of the temperature of the rectum to 35° 

 40° Lelsius ; tremulous motions of the cervical muscles ; pharynx inflamed ; deglutition 

 difficult; the amygdala' swollen ; themucous membrane presents a vivid red appearance. 

 There is occasionally vomiting or diarrhea, usually constipation. A dry, hard cough 

 is one of the symptoms in early stages, and continues to the last ; quick and vibrating 

 pulse, and occasionally ejiistaxis (the state of bleeding from the nose). Increased 

 beat and redness of the skin; the eruption is not so generally distributed as in the 

 former affection ; it disappears often suddenly, and returns after an uncertain j»eriod 

 of time. By the clfusion of the red points, tlie disease passes on to the — 



Third stage : The symptoms are of a graver type, even in the fii'st accession. In 

 fatal cases the patient is, in fact, by an elevation of the temperature to 43° Lelsius, 

 stricken dead by the poison in a few hours, before any eruption or local symptoms 

 come on. The eruption does not iiresent scarlet appearance, but is more of a livid 



