DISEASE AMONG SWINE AND OTHER DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 43 



mistakes made are not coinmittecl by a few farmers aufi hog-raisers, but by a great mauy. 

 If those who find themselves guilty of having neglected their hogs, or of having treated 

 them in "hoggish fashion,'' will accept what I have said in the same spirit in which it 

 is given, and follow my advice, th«>y will have no cause to regret it. 



Treatmeiit. — The treatment may he divided into two parts: a hygienic and a medical. 

 The former, which includes a removing of the causes, is in this, like in most other causes, 

 of the very greatest importance. If the causes are promptly removed, a great many sick 

 animals not already too far gone may be saved. If the same are not, the very best medical 

 treatment will be of little avail. The sick animals must be separated from the herd, 

 must be provided with a clean and dry resting-place, must have pure air to breathe, 

 clean water to drink, and healthy, clean, and easily-digestible food to eat. 



As to the medical part of the treatment : I would recommend giving to each patient 

 at the beginning of the disease a good emetic, composed either of powdeied white helle- 

 bore (veratnan albiun) or of tartar-emetic, in a dose of about one grain for each month 

 the sick animal is old, provided the latter is of good average size. The largest dose to be 

 given a full-grown animal should not exceed fifteen or sixteen grains. The emetic is 

 best administered by mixing the same with a piece of boiled potato, or, if the hellebore 

 (which I prefer) is chosen, by strewing the i)owder on the surface of a small quantity 

 of milk, as neither boiled potato nor milk will be refused by any hog unless the ani- 

 mal is very sick, and in that case it will be too late to make use of an emetic. After 

 the desired actiou has been produced the animal will appear to be very sick, and will 

 try to hide itself in a dark corner ; but two or three hours later it will make its appear- 

 ance again, and will be willing to take a little choice food, such as a few boiled pota- 

 toes, a little milk, &c. At this time it will be advisable to again give a small dose of 

 medicine, either a few grains (two or three to a full-growu animal and to a pig in propor- 

 tion) of tartar-emetic or of calomel. Mix with a piece of boiled potato, or, if the symp- 

 toms should not have returned, mix with a small pinch of flour and a few drops of water 

 (sufficient to make a stilf dough) aud form into small round pills. I wish to remark 

 here that a sick hog should not be dreuched with medicine under any circumstances, 

 for a drench, given by force, is very apt to pass down the windpi^ie into the lungs as 

 soon as the animal squeals, and frequently causes instant death. The tartar-emetic 

 has to be chosen if the disease has its principal seat in the respiratory organs or pre- 

 sents itself in its catarrhal-rheumatic form, and the calomel deserves preference if the 

 gastric or bilious-rheumatic form is prevailing, but especially if the liver is seriously 

 aftected. Either medicine may be given in such small doses as mentioned three times 

 a day for several days in succession, or until a change for the better becomes apparent. 

 It is also advisable, particularly if the disease exhibits a very typhoid character, to 

 now aud then mix for each animal a few drops of carbolic acid with the water for 

 drinking or with the slops. Convalescent animals, which have become very weak and 

 emaciated, will be benefited by giving them once a day from a few grains to half a 

 drachm of sulphate of iron (copperas) mixed with their food, but the use of iron must 

 be discontinued if the patients become constipated or if the excrements turn black. 

 Those convalescents in which the lungs have become hepatized to a considerable ex- 

 tent may receive repeatedly small doses of carbonate of potash for the purpose of pro- 

 moting the absorption of the exudations deposited in the tissue of the lungs. The 

 size of the dose of carbonate of potash, as well as of iron, depends upon the size and 

 the age of the animal. 



A local or external treatment is also of considerable importance. A good counter- 

 irritant, or blister composed of cantharides, or Spanish flies, and oil, made by boiling 

 oue ounce of the former and four ounces of the latter for half an hour over a moderate 

 fire, or for one hour in a water-bath, should be applied on both sides the chest in all 

 such cases in which the organs situated in that cavity are seriously aftected. Such a 

 counter-irritant has usually a very beneficial result. In most cases one application will 

 prove sufficient to relieve the animal to a considerable extent, provided the oil is 

 thoroughly rubbed in before the disease has made too much headway, or before the 

 vitality of the organism has been destroyed. If the eft'ect of the fly-blister jiroves in- 

 sufficient it may be applied again the next day, but if the same produces no eft'ect at 

 all it may be taken as an indication that the animal is going to die, and that any fur- 

 ther treatment will ]irove of no avail. Fontonels and soatons have really the same 

 eftect as a fly-blister, but they act slower, are less reliable, and may otherwise cause 

 damage, especially if the typhoid character of the disease is very much developed, by 

 weakening unnecessarily the constitution of the patient. 



In conclusion, I will mention that epizootic influenza of swine, or so-called hog-chol- 

 era, is not a new disease, nor peculiar to our country, as people seem to believe. It has 

 been known in Europe for many years. Professor Spinola gives a description of an ep- 

 izootic " pleuro-peripneumonia," corresponding almost exactly to the catarrhal-rheu- 

 matic foi-m of epizootic influenza of swine, in his "Die Krankheiten der Schweine" 

 (Diseases of Swine), Berlin, 184'i, page 82 et acq. Another brief description will be 

 found in the Austrian " Vierteljahresschrift fuer wissenschaftliche Veterinaerkunde" 

 (Quarterly for Scientific Veterinary Science), Vienna, 1870, vol. xxxiii,part 2, page 137, 

 copied from " II Medico Veterinario," 1869, page 529. 



