DISEASE AMONG SWINE AND OTHER DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 41 



with those under discussion. If these facts are duly taken into consideration, scarcely 

 any doubt can remain as to the constant inhalation of powdered soil and manure con- 

 stituting one of the principal causes of the epizootic iulluenza of swine. 



As another noxious influence tending to interfere with the process of respiration, or 

 injuring the respiratory organs, may be considered the gases or eliluvia emanating from 

 old decomposing manure heaps and from dirtj^ and lilthy pig-sties and hog-yards. Still, 

 I must look upon them as something of subordinate importance — not per se, but com- 

 pared with the more substantial agencies — and, therefore, do not deem it necessary to 

 enter into fui'ther details. 



3. Causes which iveuken the constitution^ produce predisposition, and develop or promote the 

 typhoid character of the disease. — As such have to be mentioned : 1. Foul and impure 

 "water for drinking. As a general rule, hogs are usually compelled to drink either out 

 of a dirty trough, if confined in a sty, or from muddy pools and wallows^ if kei)t in 

 pasture, &c., and, therefore, are frequently obliged to drink water that is not only 

 muddy and impure, but even stinking and full of decomposing organic substances. 

 That such water is apt to develop microscopic animal and vegetable growth, is often 

 inhabited by the brood or the laviB of various species of intestinal worms, and thus 

 prepared to convey numerous germs and causes of disease to the animal organism — 

 maybe more than are introduced in any other way — is a well known fact, and does 

 not need any explanation. 2. The tilth and manure that is consumed with the food. 

 On almost every Western farm (at any rate on all those on which I found the disease) 

 the swine are fed with corn in the ear ; the ears of corn are thrown into the pig-sty, 

 yard, or feeding-lot, as the case may bo, but always in a place full of manure and dirt, 

 either wet or dry. As a consequence, the animals can scarcely pick up a kernel of corn, 

 that is not soiled with filth, and are obliged to consume a great deal of nastiness. That 

 such wholesale consumption of tilth and excrements must finally undermine the con- 

 stitution of even the healthiest animal, and must give to any disease that may happen 

 to exist or to appear a typhoid character, is self-evident. 3. On a great many farms in 

 the West the corn-cribs are either insufficiently covered or not covered at all, and, as 

 a consequence, a great deal of the corn fed in the spring and during the summer is 

 moldy and rotten. Moldy corn does not constitute healthy food ; on the contrary, 

 it is poisonous if consumed in large quantities ; at any rate, it weakens the constitution, 

 promotes and produces disease, especially of the respiratory organs and of the kidneys, 

 and is well calculated to give any disease a decidedly typhoid character. 4. One very 

 common mistake in feeding may also be mentioned as perhaps not entirely without 

 influence. I refer to the practice of feeding nothing but corn. It may suffice, how- 

 ever, to say that corn does not contain in a due proportion all the elements necessary 

 to the growth and development of an animal ; it is destitute of some and contains 

 others in too small a proportion. Hence a variety of food is just as necessary to a hog 

 as to any other animal, if health and vigor are to be preserved. To enter into particu- 

 lars would lead too far. 



One may ask, if the causes of the disease are of such an ordinary character, how 

 can it be possible that it has become such an extensive epizooty? The answer is not 

 difficult. A satisfactory explanation can be given. 1. Notwithstanding the most dili- 

 gent search and patient inquiry, I have not been able to discover any injurious iuiiu- 

 ences or agencies, in addition to those enumerated, that have acted upon all of the 

 diseased animals, or upon a large number of the same, which can be taken into con- 

 sideration as possible causes. 2. The treatment or keeping of swine is essentially the 

 same almost every whei-e in all the Western States. The causes mentioned are, there- 

 fore, sufficiently discriminated or general enough to jjroduce an eijizootic. A great 

 many farmers, who are frequently careless enough in the treatment of even their horses 

 and cattle, usually think that a hog is but a "hog, " and it can get along with "hog- 

 gish" treatment — that it delights in nastiness, tilth, and dirt of every description, and 

 does not need a dry, comfortable, and clean resting-place during the night, clean and 

 sound food, clean and fresh water for drinking and bathing, nor shade and shelter 

 against the burning rays of a Western sun, agaiust wet and cold and the sudden changes 

 of weather and temperature in general. But they are very much mistaken ; there is 

 probably no animal which repays good care and rational treatment more than the hog. 

 Still, if nature had not endowed the same with such an excellent constitution, pork 

 might have become, before this, a very rare article. 



Some one may say, "If the principal causes of the disease have their source in the 

 manner in which the swine are raised, kept, and provided for, which does not differ 

 essentially from former years, how does it happen, or how can it be explained, that 

 the disease made its appearance as an epizooty only a few years ago, and not before ? " 

 While the country was new hogs were not so numerous as now, or at any rate were not 

 kept in such large herds; pig-sties, hog-lots, and swine-pastures contained not so much 

 accumulated filth and manure, nor so many bare and dusty places as they do now. In 

 the course of mauy years the excrements and other decomposing organic substances 

 have not only accumulated on the surface of the premises where hogs are kept, but 

 the ground and water have also become impregnated with the same. The disease, I 



