DISEASE AMONG SWINE AND OTHER DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



DISEASES OF E ARM-ANIMALS. 



Tlie following letters i elating to tbe diseases of farm-auimals have 

 been received by the Comiuissiouer of Agriculture: 



Mr. John Brooks, of Priucetou, Mass., writes as follows : 



I last year raised fifteen Hereford steer calves. I bouj^ht twenty, and out of this 

 number lost five by a disease called " bliud staggers." I think eight or ten of theiu 

 in all were aftected ; and I lost five before I discovered the nature of the disease and 

 found a remedy. I do not know but there is a better remedy than the one I used. The 

 calves, when first attacked, would not take nourishment, but held their heads up and 

 ■walked around the pen until they were exhausted, and then, in about two or three 

 days, would lie down and die. I lost five in that way. Four I saved in the following 

 niauoer : I turned new milk down them three times a day — two qu.art8 at a dose. I 

 mixed about one half pint of castor-oil with the first dose everj' other moruing. I 

 kept this up about six days, when they again commenced to take nourishment. They 

 appeared weak for about eight days after they commenced improving. They lost flesh, 

 but not to any great extent, and seemed to winter as well as those that had not been 

 sick. 



The calves were constipated, and I gave the oil to remove this difficulty. I can de- 

 fine no reason for this sickness. 1 have lost calves for a number of years in the same 

 way, but now think, if taken in season, they can be cured by the above remedy. 



Theodore S. Very, veterinary surgeon, vice-president of the United 

 States Veterinary Association, writes as follows from Boston, Mass. : 



I regret that I cannot, from exiifrieuce, relate facts about the contagious diseases 

 of cattle, sheep, hogs, and fowls. Having resided always in this city, somewhat re- 

 mote from farming and stock-raising districts, my practice has iucluded for the greater 

 part only the treatment of the diseases of the horse. Of these there are not a few 

 concerning which a large amount of practical good would arise from a more thorough 

 and positive establishment of the causes leading to their development and propaga- 

 tion. 



The epizootic influenza of the fall of 1872, caused an immense aggregate loss by 

 death, by loss of services while animals were sick, and in depreciation in values where 

 the eliects of the disease lessened the vitality of horses for a long time subsequent to 

 its first attack. Possibly a thorough search for its causes might prevent a similar gen- 

 eral outbreak, and inquiries having such an end in view should receive the attention, 

 the support, and encouragement of the general government. 



The diseaj^e known as the cerebro-spiual-mcningitis occurs as an epidemic among 

 horses, and is caused by a peculiar poison affecting the system in a specific manner, 

 producing like symptoms — differing, of course, in degree — in all cases. Nothing is 

 known concerning the exact nature of this poison, any more than of some others pro- 

 ducing disease in a similar way. It causes great losses to horse-owners in seasons 

 when it prevails, and has occurred extensively in certain localities, at different periods, 

 for the past five years. 



Glanders in horses — a most contagious, deadly, and incurable disease — has been quite 

 prevalent in Boston and vicinitj' during the past five years. The poisonous particles 

 of the disease are seldom entirely removed from stalls and stables where horses having 

 the disease have lived. In my opinion this malady might, under certain conditions, 

 become quite general. If it should, the danger therefrom would be incalculable. 

 Striugent State laws should insist upon killing every animal so affected, and provide 

 for the unmistakable removal of eveiy trace of the disease from stalls and stables 

 where it has existed, under the supervision of some qualified ijerson. 



A number of other diseases of the horse, the prevention of which is possible and of 

 ereat importance to the public welfare, coutinue to exist. 



Mr. F. M. Henderson, Leesburg, Loudoun County, Virginia, says : 



^onie six years ago Mr. J. T. Steadman, of this place, had a flock of fine fowls very 

 much aff'ected by chicken cholera, so called. I advised corn burnt on the cob thrown 

 to them, and it acted immediately with wonderfully good effects. He not only lost no 

 more fowls, but the disease soon disappeared. 



I am told that hogs kept in pens and liberally sui>plied with charcoal very rarely 

 have any disease, and I would certainly x>refer the charcoal in the shape of burnt coin 

 and cob, as being softer and possessing some real nutriment. 



