DISEASE AMONG SWINE AND OTHER DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 59 



tion of new circumstances and conditions necessarily produces physiological changes in 

 the system, and these changes being, to say the least, i)artially abnormal, the body is 

 prepared to take on diseases which were originally unknown to the hog. It is these 

 changes which create a predisposition to disease which hitherto inoperative causes 

 have failed to develop, but now being brought into action the enervated system falls 

 an easy prey. Is it not reasonable to suppose that muscles accustomed to daily toil 

 for sustenance, when deprived of that healthful exercise, should become weak, llabby, 

 and deprived of much of that vitality which constitutes perfect health ? Departures 

 from the irrevocable laws of animal life in its perfection is invariably accompanied 

 with loss of some kind, and hence violation of physiological laws are dangerous. 



We need not wonder that an active nervous system, from close continement and 

 relief from all anxiety about satisfying hunger, should change the temperament to a 

 lymphatic one, which is the prevailing one of fat animals as a rule. We need not 

 wonder that changes so conspicuous should lead to disease and a shortened span of 

 life; that stamina of constitution and longevity should be wiped out with the sponge 

 of disease. We conclude, then, that the above causes indicate a condition of the sys- 

 tem which predisposes it to the taking on of certain diseases so fatal to the hog. 

 These are, in medical language, the remote causes; the immediate causes now require 

 a brief notice. The class of diseases which, under various forms, takes off so many 

 hogs, horses, and cattle, has proved a stubborn enemy to veterinary students ; and 

 post-murtem examinations have only revealed the existing pathology of diseased parts, 

 not the immediate existing cause of the phenomena presented. This class of diseases 

 seem to belong especially to the mucous membranes, those tissues which are exposed 

 to the direct action of causes existing in the atmosphere or in the food. The causes 

 of epizootic diseases, and those which produce typhoid types of disease through the 

 medium of the bowels and stomach, are floating in the air, or exist in the food taken 

 into the stomach. It is now admitted by some of tjhe best authorities that epizootic 

 diseases are caused by a vegetable gi'owth, the minute spores of which are breathed 

 into the lungs, as they are floating in the air we breathe, and also that some typhoid 

 forms of fever, as hog-cholera, are of either animal or vegetable growth, and that the 

 spores or minute eggs are introduced in the food. What is singular to the non-physi- 

 ologist, these spores coming in contact with healthy mucous surfaces will not vege- 

 tate, showing that certain, definite conditions are required in this membrane to pro- 

 duce disease at all; or, in other words, there must be a peculiar abnormal condition of 

 this membrane before there can possibly be a development of these diseases. A fur- 

 ther examination of the matter of the stomach and bowels by a powerful microscope 

 is very desirable, that more positive and reliable knowledge may be gained, which 

 may point out a treatment which, thus far, has been little less than an opprobrium 

 to veterinary practice. 



Symptoms of hog-cholera are not unfrequently modified, or new symptoms added. 

 The characteristic symptoms, which are never absent, are fever, refusal to eat, dispo- 

 sition to lie undisturbed, and a fetid discharge of dark-colored fieces. We suspect the 

 distinctive feature which shall distinguish hog-cholera from all other disease will be 

 found in the peculiarity of the fecal discharges, and- these can only be demonstrated by 

 careful microscopic investigation. 



The treatment upon which any reliance can be placed, so far as we know, has not 

 yet been discovered. It is true quackery raises her hydra head, and floods the country 

 with sure cures, but whether from medicine taken or in spite of it, we do not know. 

 As a rule, about the time we find out the hog is really sick, the disease is so far ad- 

 vanced that remedies may be considered useless. We have seen It stated that turpen- 

 tine has been given, about a teaspoonf ul to the hog, and with success. A further trial 

 is desirable, for it is not impossible that turpentine may kill those minute specks of 

 life without injury to the mucous membrane. An accidental discovery of this kind 

 would save millions of dollars annually. But there are other diseases, among which 

 pneumonia is not uncommon and often fatal. For instance, we have known cases 

 where the hogs piled themselves up on the wet ground under cover, so that they be- 

 came steaming wet ; they then rush out into the cold air to eat their corn, take cold, and 

 die of pneumonia. Hogs are often troubled with worms, which greatly disturb di- 

 gestion and make the appetite capricious, keeping them thin in flesh. Copperas in 

 their swill, at the rate of two table-spoonfuls to the pail of swill, will clean out the 

 worms and greatly improve the health of the hogs. Repeat this twice a week for a 

 few weeks. A large farmer in Kendall County this fall lost 300 head of hogs, but he 

 came to the conclusion, whether the true one or not, that the disease was not true 

 cholera, but a form of disease which he believes was produced by a stagnant pond of 

 water in the field. They were in the pond a good deal, and the pond was covered with 

 a green scum. This may have been a malarial disease in some respects analogous to 

 thft genuine cholera. 



Since, from the nature of the case, the disease is not noticed until it is fastened upon 

 the system and beyond the stage in which curative measures may prove successful, it 

 is wisdom to fall back on a surer and more feasiljle plan — precautionary measures of 



