34 DISEASE AMONG SWINE AND OTHER DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



ond is fistula, which is an nlceratiou of the top of the withers, caused by a hurt or 

 bruise of the main sinews of the neck where it joins the top of the shoulders. This 

 disease is not necessarily fatal, though it re([uires a great deal of care and nursing 

 after it has commenced running. There are various reniedif s. Some veterinarians 

 burn with soft soap and whisky before the pus has formed, while others rub with tur- 

 pentine and warm in with a hot iron. After the fistula has commenced running, a 

 liniment made of May-apple root is the most effectual remedy. It should be used 

 two or three times a day, with repeated washings with soap-suds. The third is te- 

 tanus or lock-jaw, which is a fearful disease. The horse, when taken, shows a very 

 restless disposition ; the head protrudes forward ; the eyes roll back and seem to siuk 

 in the head; the hind feet are drawn under; the tail is extended, while all the muscles 

 seem drawn to their utmost tension ; some fever, with short and hurried breathing. It 

 Is caused sometimes by a hurt and at other times by overheating. Full 75 per cent, 

 of the cases end fatally. Tlie attack is of short duration, lasting only from two to 

 four days. We often bleed freely from the neck vein, which, in cases caused by over- 

 heating, is sometimes etiectual. In cases caused by a hurt I am of the opinion there 

 is no remedy whatever. 



With the exception of a few cases of abortion in cows, cattle and sheep are gener- 

 ally healthy. 



Hogs are affected with a lameness which seems to be a forerunner of the cholera. 

 They become lame in one or more of their feet ; have ulcers on their joints, which last 

 in some cases twelve mouths. Some have sores at every joint and finally get well and 

 make good hogs. We have no remedy. 



I have known some instances of chicken cholera whei'e all the fowls on a farm have 

 died. They fall from their roosts and die during the night. Like cholera in the hog, 

 there seems to be no remedy. 



The followiog elaborate paper on the "epizootic and enzootic dis- 

 eases of swine," commonly known as " hog cholera," is from the pen of 

 Prof. H. J. Detmers, V. S., Bellegarde, Kans. : 



It is well known that some very fatal and destructive diseases of an epizootic and 

 enzootic character have been, and are yet, prevailing among swine in several parts of 

 the Mississippi and Missouri valleys. The farmers, not understanding the morbid 

 proceses, and not knowing or rather not seeing the causes which produced the mischief, 

 and finding the diseases to be very malignant and epizootic (affecting many animals 

 at the same time), bring them all under one head and give them the rather strange 

 and decidedly improper appellation of " hog cholera," a name which has wrought a 

 great deal of mischief. It conveys the very erroneous idea that the disease or dis- 

 eases so called must be identical with, or at least similar to, the cholera of men, con- 

 sequently very contagious, and a product, not of common and local, but of very un- 

 common and extraordinary agencies and influences. As a natural consequence, the 

 real causes, although near enough at hand, are overlooked and entirely disregarded, or 

 considered as something innocent or out of the question ; and improbable, imagin- 

 ary, and unknown or mysterious influences and agencies are looked upon as the possi- 

 ble causes. As a further consequence, almost every one who suffers losses, instead of 

 looking the facts squarely in the face by investigating the causes, endeavors to dis- 

 cover specific remedies which do not exist and can never be found. Even State legis- 

 latures have offered high premiums for such a discovery. All this diverts attention 

 from the existing facts as revealed by the morbid process and by the morbid changes 

 found at 2J08<-»ior<eJ/t examinations, which prejudices the minds of a great many ob- 

 servers. 



About a year ago I spent (at the request of the Missouri State Board of Agriculture) 

 nearly a month, from August 11 to September 4, in several counties of Missouri for the 

 purpose of investigatiug those diseases of swine known to the farmers as " hog cholera." 

 I examined several hundred sick animals in the counties of Jackson, La Fayette, and 

 Saint Charles, and made, during the time mentioned, almost daily po^t-mortem exam- 

 inations, not only of hogs that had just died, but also of animals affected with disease 

 in every stage of development, which were killed by bleeding for that special purpose. 

 The premises on which the diseased animals had been kept were carefuUy examined, 

 and the care and treatment which they had received before getting sick, and the mode 

 and manner in which they had been kept, were ascertained by diligent inquiry and 

 observation. Hence considerable material, sufBcient to form an ox)inion aa to the 

 nature and real causes of the disease, or rather diseases, was collected. 



Before I proceed further I wish to remark that I intend to restrict my report or com- 

 munication to what I have seen and observed myself, knowing very well that still 

 other diseases of swine, such, for instance, as various forms of anthrax, and even mor- 

 bid affections caused by the presence of intestinal worms, are also called hog cholera 

 by a great many farmers, and— one should scarcely believe it, but it is true — by a large 

 number of agricultural papers. 



