DISEASE AMONG SWINE AND OTHER DOMESTIC ANIMALS, 17 



few years aflfectins; any class of farm-auimals, except swine and fowls; and in these 

 cases almost all complaints resulting in death are summed up by the people as " hog " 

 or " chicken " cholera. In few cases of disease of this kind that have come under my 

 immediate observation are found any symptoms analogous to the disease of that name 

 as affecting the liumau species. The treatment has been as empirical and irrational as 

 the diagnosis has been erroneous. 



As to swine, the diseases, whether one or many, have created or caused a fearful loss 

 to our farmers, and discouraged them in the further pursuit of that branch of stock-rais- 

 ing ; and while almost all sections are more or less affected, there seems to be more dis- 

 ease and greater fatality among the farmers operating in the rich valleys of White and 

 Wabash Kivers ; and the disease and loss has been, I think, greatest during those years 

 of great overflow, and greatest during the years in which the overllow occurred late 

 in the season, leaving with its sediment the luxuriant growth of vegetation to decay 

 and evolve miasuiatic effluvia. From these facts I think much of the loss is caused 

 from diseases brought on by exposure to miasmatic influence. 



I am not conversant with any scientific investigations that throw much light upon 

 the cause of these diseases, or the pathological conditions found on posi-mortem exam- 

 inations in such animals as have died. No treatment has yet been discovered by 

 our farmers so certain in its curative effect as to inspire them with the belief that hog- 

 raising is sufficiently safe from loss to insure prolitable results. I am fully persuaded 

 that so long as they content themselves in ascribing to all deaths the one common 

 cause, "hog-cholera," and adhere to the present plan of empirical treatment, instead of 

 patiently and scientifically investigating the causes producing disease in swine, and 

 the various kinds of disease to which that animal is liable, giving to each its distinct- 

 ive rational treatment, the subject will remain a mystery, and the fearful mortality 

 continue to increase. That the farming population of the country, as a class, are not 

 sufficiently educated to undertake this work, is a fact too well known to be disputed ; 

 and inasmuch as the great loss from that class of animals alone is not merely an indi- 

 vidual loss, or the loss of a particular class of our people, but through them a great 

 national loss, it is unquestionably within the range of the duties of the general gov- 

 ernment to undertake the extensive investigations which alone can accomplish this 

 result. 



What I have said in a general way in regard to swine applies with equal force to 

 fowls. The loss, from whatever cause, is due to "cholera, "in the opinion of most farmers, 

 and astringent drinks and iron mixtures are given, whether the fowls are purging or 

 are constipated from congestion from overfeeding, dying from starvation, or eaten up 

 by vermin, or diseased from the foul air that arises from the filthy excretions remain- 

 ing in their pens, unmoved for months, or from any of the many other causes affecting 

 their health. 



No fatal disease has prevailed epidemically among horses in this part of the country 

 within the last few years, and this animal, therefore, is admitted by common consent 

 to be liable to quite a number of ailments, requiring different causes for their produc- 

 tion and slight modification in the administration of remedies for their cure ; but in 

 the case of the horse, the naming of a prevailing epidemic a few years since has unfor- 

 tunately caused all bronchial and catarrhal affections to be grouped under one common 

 class and name — " epizootic." In the treatment of this animal for whatever disease, 

 we generally witness the heroic empiricism practiced upon the iron constitutions of 

 the people of two centuries ago (who sometimes triumphed over both the disease and 

 the doctor), by a selection of remedies from among the most poisonous and potential 

 that can be found described in materia medlca. All structural enlargements that do not 

 warrant their removal by the surgeon's knife, instead of being slightly stimulated 

 locally, in addition to such internal treatment as is calculated to favor their absorption 

 and natural removal, are plied with blisters and the cautery until the countrj^ is filled 

 with valuable animals scarred and crippled for life — living monuments of the igno- 

 rance and savagery of their owners and masters. 



These facts, which I think are not overdrawn, show the impossibility of my giving 

 you any tabular statement of diseases properly classified, and the treatment given 

 under any proper head, because the several diseases affecting each class of animals 

 have not been investigated, and are neither understood nor rationally treated. What 

 I have been able to contribute, therefore, can serve only to show the great necessity 

 for scientific investigation. The treatment of domestic animals in the West is geu- 

 ei'ally committed to self-styled veterinary surgeons, whose experience is alone their 

 guide, and that often founded upon the service of keeping some gentleman's horse, 

 observation in a livery-stable, or as a common loafer around the neighborhood of breed- 

 ing establishments. 



Dr. H. J. Detmers, vice-president of tbe American Berkshire Associa- 

 tion, Bellegarde, Kans., writes as follows : 



A thorough investigation of the epizootic, enzootic, and contagions diseases of live- 

 stock is certainly a step in* the right direction, and will be, if judiciously conducted, 

 S. Ex. 35 2 



