DISEASE AMONG SWINE AND OTHER DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 93 



virtue as such. This is especially the case with May-apple root. A Mr. Conilis, of 

 our place, has prepared a remedy that is being used considerably in this section of the 

 country, and it appears to have some merit as a curative. He regards it as a certain 

 preventive. He has now used it about seven years, and says that he has never had 

 a case of cholera among his hogs since he has been using it as a preventive. 



Mr. J. Westlake, Troy, Miami Couiity, Ohio, says : 



Hog-cholera prevails to a considerable extent here and is quite fatal. The epizootic 

 hits also prevailed to some extent among the horses of this county, but has not been 

 very fatal. Chicken-cholera prevails extensively in some neighborhoods, and is very 

 fatal. 



Mr. R. J. WiLLOUGHBY, Fecleralsburg, Caroline County, Maryland, 

 says : 



We have a disease among fowls here which seems to affect but two classes, viz., tur- 

 keys and barn-yard fowls. The disease is generally known as cholera. It is very 

 fatal, and kills entire flocks sometimes within the short space of twenty-four hours. 

 It seems to strike in spots. For instance, while the flock of one farmer may be entirely 

 decimated, that of another, who may not reside three hundred yards away, may en- 

 tirely escape. We have not been able to And any remedy for the disease. 



A number of horses were lost during the past summer and fall by farmers in the ad- 

 joining county of Dorchester, by a disease known as blind-staggers. A remedy for the 

 disease was extensively used and proved quite successful. It was, to split the horse's 

 forehead and bind horseradish in the cut. In every case where tliis remedy was used 

 in the early stages of the disease the animals recovered. From sixty to eighty horses 

 died of the disease in that county. 



Mr. E. Archer, Lancaster, Franklin County, Ohio, says : 



The only disease affecting farm-animals here is cholera among swine, and its symp- 

 toms are as varied as its treatment. The duration of the disease is from four hours to 

 as many weeks. Nine cases out of ten prove fatal. Our experience here is that there 

 is no remedy for the disease, but we have a pretty certain preventive, viz : Salt, cop- 

 peras, and wood-ashes, in the proportion of one pint of salt, one-fourth pint of pulver- 

 ized copperas, and three gallons of wood-ashes, well mixed, and placed in dry sheds, 

 where the hogs can have access to it at all times. This is the only satisfactory pre- 

 ventive to my knowledge. When the disease has progressed so far as to cause the loss 

 of appetite, I regard it as the next thing to incurable. When a hog once refuses to eat, 

 he is dead, or might as well be. 



Mr. John L. S. Debault, La Eose, Marshall County^, Illinois, says: 



In my county diseases are prevailing among hogs to a very alarming extent. Dif- 

 ferent lots seem to be differently affected. Some have symptoms of quinsy, while 

 others seem to be afflicted with the old cholera, a disease not very prevalent this fall. 

 However, almost every ailment among hogs is called cholera. An entirely new phase 

 of the disease seems to be prevailing this season among my own hogs. They had the 

 run of a very large pasture, comprising creek-bottom and upland, with an abundance 

 of young timber. They had pure running water, a fine blue-grass pasture, an occa- 

 sional feed of corn, and in addition followed a herd of corn-fed steers. I had two 

 hundred and thirty-three head, and I thought they were the finest lot of shoats I had 

 ever seen — healthy iu every respect apparently, and thrifty. October was very warm 

 until toward the close of the mouth, when we had a sudden change to severe cold 

 weather. My hogs were at once affected. They commenced to sneeze and cough, and 

 the pupil of the eye turned white, causing total blindness in a few hours. Death would 

 generally ensue within from ten to twenty-four hours. Their bowels did not seem to 

 be affected ; the disease seemed to be entirely located in the head and nasal organs 

 until within two or three hours before death, after which the whole trouble appeared 

 to be with the lungs. I think the symptoms were those of catarrh. I tried various 

 remedies without any good effect. Among other things I did was bleeding, but this 

 only seemed to hasten death. I then tried turpentine, sulphur, and copperas with like 

 ill success. Finally I sent to Grundy County for a hog-doctor, who had great success 

 in killing all he undertook to cure. I changed the quarters of those that remained, 

 placing them in dry hospital buildings, in small lots together, where I could give them 

 medicines at pleasure. This did not stay the disease, as the confinement appeared to 

 cause it to rage with greater virulence than before. I finally lost two-thirds of my 

 herd — one hundred and fifty-five out of two hundred and thirty-thi'ee — before the 

 disease abated. My opinion is that the disease was caused by too high a temi)erature 

 of the body when the sudden change of weather took place in Octolier, .lud the conse- 

 quent sudden cooling of the outside surface. 



