42 DISEASE AMONG SWINE AND OTHER DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



■do not doubt, will still spread and increase in malignancy in the same proportion in 

 which dung and dirt are allowed to accumulate, and in which the size of the herd is 

 increased. 



Is the epizootic influenza of swine a contagions disease? — To tell the truth, I am not pre- 

 pared to decide that question, because such a decision requires numerous experiments, 

 and these I have not been able to make. A great many farmers believe, nay, hold 

 themselves convinced, that the disease must be contagious, and have furnished me 

 with facts which I admit seem to point very strongly that way. Still I think the epi- 

 zootic character or the fearful spreading of the disease can be satisfactorily explained 

 without the existence of a contagion. The fact that the hogs and pigs running at large 

 in the streets of the towns and cities are, with rare exceptions, healthy and remain 

 exempted from the disease, notwithstanding they are much more exposed to contagions 

 or contagious infection than any others, goes far to show that the disease is probably 

 not contagious. 



Duration of the morhid process. — In some cases the disease has had a fatal termination 

 within two days after the first plain symptoms of sickness had made their appearance, 

 and a few cases have been reported to me in which the animals have died within from 

 six to twelve hours ; but as to the latter cases, I am inclined to think the first symptoms 

 have escaped observation ; a very common occurrence in diseases of swine. Tlie aver- 

 age duration of the disease may be set down as from five to fifteen days. Still some 

 animals have been sick from three to six weeks, but as most of these recovered, a part 

 of that time should be looked upon as belonging to the stage of convalescence, or, if 

 the patients died, the disease was protracted by relapse. 



Prevention. — The measures of prevention consist in removing the causes or in treat- 

 ing the swine in a rational manner in accordance with hygienic principles. If this is 

 done, no other special treatment nor any medicines will be needed to ward ofi' the dis- 

 ease. To give medicine to healthy animals for the jiurpose of preserving their health 

 is a bad practice and may be fraught with injury. The use of medicines can have but 

 few objects, viz., to mitigate, to remove, to destroy, or to divert injurious iufiuences. 

 To give the same for any other purpose will do much more damage than good, and 

 should never be done. Hence I have to caution every farmer against the use of any 

 patent nostrums or quack medicines advertised as "cure-alls," but intended only to 

 di'aw the money out of the pockets of the ci'edulous. 



But to the point : I am confident that the epizootic influenza of swine, or the dis- 

 ease commonly called hog-cholera, will cease to exist, or, at any rate, will lose its 

 epizootic character and become a very rare occurrence, first, if large herds of swine are 

 divided into smaller ones containing only a few (three or four) animals each ; second, 

 if each lot, consisting of a few animals, is provided with a comfortable pen or suffi- 

 ciently-protected resting-place to sleep in, which is kept free from filth, dust, and 

 manure, is well ventilated, and has a good roof ; third, if every hog or pig has access 

 several times a day, or as often as weather or temperature and circumstances require, 

 to fresh and clean water for drinking and bathing, either in troughs made for that 

 purpose or in a brook or streamlet ; fourth, if no filth, manure, and other decomposing 

 organic substances are allowed to accumulate in any of the sties, yards, pens, hog-lots, 

 or pastures in which the hogs or pigs are kept ; and, fifth, if the food is always healthy 

 and sound and never soiled with filth and manure. I know very well that many farm- 

 ers prefer to be sent to the drug store for medicine in preference to complying with 

 these rules, and some of them may even think or say, "If I cannot keep my hogs in 

 the old 'hoggish' fashion, but must treat them even better than I am in the habit of 

 treating my horses and cattle, I prefer not to keep them at all." To such men I have 

 to say, if you do not keep any hogs you certainly will not lose any, and may thus benefit 

 yourself and your neighbor, who will reap the profit from the scarcity of hogs produced. 

 But I can assure you that any one who will consent to treat his swine in a rational 

 manner, as an animal ought to be treated, will gain thereby, and will receive ample 

 compensation for his care and labor. At any rate, it will pay much better for any one 

 to raise, for instance, fifty hogs, to keep them well and lose none and to develop them 

 into "prime porkers " or so-called " Philadelphia " hogs, than to raise one or two hun- 

 dred in " hoggish " fashion, lose from 50 to 70 per cent., and produce animals that fig- 

 ure as inferior " light-weights " or " scalawags " in the market reports. Moreover, 

 the amount of food which is needed to produce two hundred pounds of inferior and 

 frequently unhealthy pork, if the pigs are kept on the manure-heap, in the barn-yard, 

 or in small, nasty pens, will easily produce three hundred pounds of good, healthy, 

 and palatable pork if the keeping of the animal is always in strict accordance with 

 the laws of hygiene. If the latter are never violated, I am sure epizootic influenza 

 will not make its appearance ; but if the indifl'erent, or rather negligent, treatment 

 of swine customary in the West does not undergo a thorough change, the disease will 

 increase in frequency from year to year. 



In thus giving my views candidly and in plain language, I wish to state, without any 

 apologies, that my object is not to blame any one, but to tell the honest truth, aud to 

 point out the way which must be pursued if it is^desired to get rid of the disease. The 



