No. 4.] CATTLE COMMISSIONERS. 511 



twice, and the changing of food and surroundings showed an 

 improvement, and they were released June 28. 



October 13, the inspector of North Adams quarantined 17 

 pigs as having hog cholera ; an agent of the Board found 

 them suffering from an infectious fever of some kind ; 14 

 young pigs died, 3 old ones recovered and were released 

 from quarantine November 27. 



October 9, the inspector of Shelburne reported a case of 

 hog cholera in a pig that died, but there seems to have been 

 no further outbreak in this connection. 



November 13, 2 swine were quarantined by the inspector 

 of Swampscott because they were bitten by a dog suspected 

 of having rabies ; these have already been mentioned in the 

 portion of the report relating to rabies. 



December 9 , the inspector of Beverly quarantined 26 swine, 

 on suspicion of having hog cholera. This outbreak was in- 

 vestigated by an agent of the Board, and a pig killed and 

 sent to Dr. Frothingham on post-mortem presented the ap- 

 pearance of hog cholera. Another pig that was sick was 

 killed by a neighbor's dog. The rest seemed to be recover- 

 ing, December 28, as a result of changing their food from 

 city swill to grain, putting them in new pens, and separating 

 the diseased from the healthy. They were released Decem- 

 ber 29. 



Another outbreak among a herd of 23 head in Colrain is 

 still in charge of an agent of the Board. This case is evi- 

 dently traceable to feeding swill from hotels. 



It will be seen from what has been stated that the course 

 pursued in these outbreaks is to quarantine the swine, for- 

 bidding the owner to sell or buy any until his premises are 

 again free from disease, and advising a change of food, or 

 boiling the swill, new pens, and separating the sick from the 

 healthy. This seems to be about all that there is to do at 

 present, and the results appear to be fairly satisfactory. 



Swine diseases do not seem to be as important in Massa- 

 chusetts, where the animals are kept in small lots and closely 

 confined, as they are in the west, where pigs run in adjoin- 

 ing pastures in large herds, and sick pigs on a stream pollute 

 the water supply and lead to the infection of those lower 

 down the water course. In some sections of the west, such 



