65 DISEASE AMONG SWINE AND OTHER DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



and health at this time in this vicinity are such as to attract no special interest. Their 

 liealth has heen good, especially since the cessation of dry seasons and chinch-bugs. 



Withthe hogs it is (jnite different. They are exceedingly healthy in all respects, 

 with the exception of the prevalence among them of the disease known as cholera. 

 From it no known condition, treatment, location, food, water, temperature, exercise, 

 or season seems to give any guarantee of security. They take it at all ages and under 

 all conditions, as i)eople take measles or small-pox, and the surrounding conditions 

 only seem to modify its eft'ect in severity and fatality, the greatest effect generally 

 being produced by the condition of the weather. In the mild weather of siiring the 

 percentage of fatality to those that take it is fully as low as '20 per cent. ; in the fine 

 weather of fall it is a little worse ; but in the heat of summer it is often above 90 per 

 cent., and quite as bad in the coldest of winter. Although it does not spread as rapidly 

 during cold seasons, it makes very near a clean sweep of those that take it. The laws 

 of its propagation are visibly these : The more the hogs are isolated the less liable are 

 they to take the disease; the larger the herds, when it once gets among them, the 

 greater is the percentage of cases, and in cold weather if one of those that bed with 

 others takes it and it is not at once separated from those not affected the whole bed 

 will take it and i^robably all die. The percentage of hogs that take the disease varies 

 with the weather and other conditions, sometimes varying from 40 to 95 jier cent. I 

 have known a few instances of isolated herds, fenced away from any contact with 

 other hogs, growing with perfect imi)unity through periods of its greatest ravages in 

 the vicinity, which convinces me that the disease is a contagion, and is governed by 

 the same laws of contagious diseases as those which aiiflict other animals. In this be- 

 lief I have been strengthened by the fact that the great supply of hogs to the market 

 come from those localities where there are no free commons for hogs and where the 

 breeders raise and fatten their animals; also that the still-bousa pens, cattle-lots, and 

 free common country, which used to raise the bulk of the hogs, are now the localities 

 of the greatest devastation. If I am correct in the above views, the questions of diag- 

 nosis and treatment are merged into the one of isolation and prevention. I have often 

 seen a complete diagnosis of the disease published, and any attempt on my part in this 

 direction would necessarily be more tedious than profitable. I have noticed but few 

 unvarying symptoms of the disease. These, somewhat modified in various cases, are: 

 1. A drooping of the head with a dull appearance. 2. A wheezing cough. 3. Falling 

 away from the food. 4. A disposition to crawl under weeds, brusli, or straw. 5. Ked- 

 ness about the ears and under side of the body. These are the only symptoms that 

 are at all constant in the animal while alive ; but some of them are now and then 

 wanting, while there are a great many others of a varying and often conflicting char- 

 acter. Alter death, in the great number of cases that I have opened, there is one 

 conspicuous feature, i. e., the absolute absence of blood in those that linger a few days, 

 and the collapsed condition of the lungs. Otherwise, I never could find any evidence 

 of either organic or functional cause of death. 



The incipient stages and duration of the disease are as varied and irregular as other 

 symptoms of the malady. I have seen hogs eat heartily at night in apparent good 

 health and next morning be found dead. In most cases they will take a little food the 

 first day, and sometimes for several days ; again, they may live for weeks and finally 

 die of the disease. The most general duration, however, seems to be from three to six 

 days. 



As remedies I have known almost everything being tried, both in tlie vegetable and 

 mineral kingdoms. I have often heard of specifics, and known parties who believed 

 in them, but it has invariably turned out that the cholera eventually got among their 

 hogs under unfavorable circumstances of weather or other conditions, and they died 

 as did those not treated with these specifics. I have doctored hundreds, and am sat- 

 isfied that if I ever cured one that would not have got well without treatment it was 

 with petroleum — drenching a bog of two hundred pounds with about one-half of a 

 teacupful at a time once a day. But my experience is that if a hog has the cholera 

 bad and recovers or is cured it has but very Ifttle value afterward. The only practical 

 treatment is to change them to fresh quarters, separate the diseased hogs from the 

 well ones, and isolate them from one another as much as possible. 



In conclusion, I must express the opinion, which has grown to a conviction with me , 

 that the only practical remedy for cholera is to isolate the herd, to prevent the moving 

 of diseased animals through the country, and to prohibit their wandering about with 

 impunity, carrying and s{)reading disease as they go. Leaving the matter to regulate 

 itself has caused this locality, which formerly sent great numbers of hogs to market, to 

 be shoit of a supply of swine to make meat for home use. 



Mr. R. T. Smith, Pliillipsville, Erie County, reimsylv'ania, says : 



I am glad that an effort is being made by the government to discover the causes of 

 the various diseases which from time to time afflict farm animals. The epizootic, 

 which occurred some five years ago, has since annually affected horses in this locality, 



