60 DISEASE AMONG SWINE AND OTHER DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



prevention. The question arises, What maybe considered in some sense prophylactics 

 in this class of diseases ? The answer is, Preserve a healthy play of the organs of the 

 body, and the causes prodnciug these diseases cannot act on the mucous membranes, 

 and consequently no disease will be produced. A weakened and partially diseased 

 mucous surface seems to be a prerequisite to the sprouting of spores in the lungs or 

 the hatching of eggs in the stomach and bowels. Right here we are met with the 

 very pertinent question, Can we prevent the devolopmontof disease where the predis- 

 position is always present by any treatment of the animal ? Like hereditary consump- 

 tion in man, so long as the health of the animal is sufficient to resist the causes acting 

 on the predisposition, so long will the disease be absent. What, then, can be done 

 toward saving millions of hogs annually ? First. They must have a dry and comfort- 

 able place to sleep, and this apartment should be cleaned out every few days, and, if 

 necessary, washed out also. Second. They must have clean water so arranged that 

 they can drink whenever it suits them. Third. They should have salt at least twice 

 each week and stone or charcoal, which is better, every week. Fourth. They should 

 be fed upon a clean floor, and their feed should be mixed or frequently changed ; 

 cooked food, with apples or potatoes for desert, and then corn in the ear or hasty pud- 

 ding. Fifth. In summer they should have all the timothy and clover they will eat. 

 This treatment would doubtless save a host ; but so long as a predisposition exists, 

 there will be more or less disease, and so long as new varieties are being developed, 

 there will exist an instability in breeding, which tends to weaken rather than strengthen 

 the constitution of the hog. We doubt seriously whether hog-cholera, Tinder present 

 modes of breeding, can be either prevented or successfully treated. Still, accident 

 may discover a remedy which will kill the living cause of disease without injury to 

 the animal. Of course we do not recommend going back to the " alligator pike " or 

 the " Ohio rooter," charged with stealing potatoes out of the second row in the ad- 

 joining lot. We do believe, however, that the hog needs more exercise, a greater va- 

 riety of food, and that he should not be bred in and in, as all our best breeds have 

 been. We have too many varieties now, and the more we get and undertake to breed 

 them pure, the weaker and more liable to disease will the hog become. 



Mr. E. Stokes, Berlin, Camden County, Xew Jersey, says: 



We have been exempt in a great measure from diseases among our farm-animals in 

 this immediate vicinity for some months, except a disease affecting the horse. This 

 malady is very fatal, and a number of horses have been lost in the southern portion 

 of this county and many in Atlantic County. They are taken suddenly with great 

 weakness, and in many cases very soon after eating a full feed are unable to stand, 

 and in four or five hours become perfectly blind and experience great difficulty in 

 breathing. They die within from twelve to twenty-four hours. Almost every case has 

 proved fatal. Mares seem much more liable to be attacked than horses. I have heard 

 of no mules being attacked by the disease. Horses in prime condition are as liable as 

 those that are not, and youug ones are rather more liable than old horses. I think the 

 disease is somewhat on the decrease at this date. Some localities are entirely exempt, 

 while it may prevail on almost every side. Should the disease become general, it will 

 prove much more serious than any malady we have ever had among our horses. 



Both hog and chicken cholera are prevailing to some extent in this locality. 



Mr. J. C. Thornton, Elliott, Ford County, Illinois, says: 



A disease exists among hogs here which has proved very fatal. In the fall of 187.5 I lost 

 all but sixteen out of a herd of one hundred and twenty. The symptoms of the disease 

 vary a great deal. The first symptoms are invariably manifested in a dry cough, great 

 thirst, and sometimes purging and vomiting. As a general rule, hogs, while under 

 the influence of the disease, are very stupid. The duration of the disease also varies. 

 Some of those affected will linger along for a mouth or two; some will apparently get 

 better, but after a while the flesh will begin to drop off in places, and then the animal 

 will soon die. The larger portion of those attacked will die in a few days. I gave 

 new milk from a fresh young cow to the first two of my hogs that were aflected, and 

 they got well ; but I could find nothing that proved of any benefit to the others. I 

 used stone-coal, copperas, sal-soda, sulx^hur, alum, cayenne pepper, &c., without any ben- 

 eficial results. 



The disease prevailed in an epidemic form, as hogs were attacked without coming 

 in contact with infected stock. During the fall of 1375 at least 1,000 head of hogs died 

 of the disease in this township, a tract of land only six miles wide and about nine miles 

 in length. 



In the fall of 1876 the disease prevailed again to a considerable extent, and many 

 hogs were lost. The symptoms were about the same as those given above. During 

 the past summer the disease again made its appeai'ance, but this time in a milder 

 form. 



