94 DISEASE AMONG SWINE AND OTHER DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



Mr. John Frost, Hoboken, Huclsou County, New Jersey, says : 



Onr horses have suffered greatly by epizootic, which seems to have been chronic, for 

 the last three years. The symptoms are as follows: The eyes become dull and heavy, 

 the glands of the throat swollen, loss of appetite, followed by a copious discharge of 

 mucus from the nostrils. My system of treatment was as follows: I had my stable 

 thoroughly cleaned, and gave it several good coats of whitewash prepared from ordi- 

 nary lime. I then fumigated it once a day l»y burning pine-tar, being very careful to 

 close the door and keep all the smoke i)ossible from escaping. About noon I would 

 prepare a feed for them by scalding about three quarts of wheat-bran, and after add- 

 ing about one gill of cider vinegar would feed it to them warm in a nose-bag. If they 

 refused to eat they at least inhaled the steam from the food. This treatment seemed 

 to bi'ing them back to their appetites. I fed them young carrot-tops, which they 

 devoured with avidity. At the end of four or five days with this treatment the horses 

 were ready to go to work again. Some of my neighbors refused to follow my treat- 

 ment and called in veterinary surgeons, who were in most cases from four to live weeks 

 in getting the horses on their feet again. In a great number of cases very valuable 

 animals were lost, while my own thrived and recovered their wonted spirits and 

 strength in most cases in less than a week. 



Horses in this district sutfer greatly from inflammation of the bladder, brought on 

 in most cases from fast driving or heavy pulling. Tlie symptoms that have come under 

 my notice are as follows : The horse frequently stretches and attempts to stale, but can- 

 not. I have tried niter and gin, in fact all ordinary prescriptions given Ijy veterinary 

 surgeons. They failed, and I resorted to my own treatment, which is as follows : Take 

 about twenty-five or thirty roots of parsley, stew them in about three quarts of water, 

 strain them through a collander, and give the horse as a driuk one pint every half- 

 hour. The second or third dose has never, in my expei'ience, failed to relieve them. 



Dr. Frank Prince, Jonesborough, Jefferson County, Alabama, says : 



There is a disease prevalent here among hogs which for years has been known as 

 cholera, but which should more i)roperly be termed measles. The first symptom that 

 manifests itself, on close scrutiny, is seen in the hog walking on its toes, and not upon 

 the entire foot. But for some time previous to this the hog has been affected, and this 

 is the result of contraction of the intercostal and abdominal muscles. There exists a 

 latent inflammation of the parenchyma of the lungs, and cutaneous or superficial 

 fascia, which causes the hog to contract the muscles for relief, hence he pitches on his 

 toes. He has been having fevers several days, as is manifest by dullness and stupid- 

 ity, indisposition to play, the head bowed with the nose close to the ground, and a thin, 

 viscid mucus dropping from the mouth. Now examined, the mouth will be found 

 inflamed, an eruption is visible in and around the throat, and the appetite is fast fail- 

 ing. A slight cough has set in, accompanied with occasional vomiting. The eruption 

 soon fastens itself upou the entire alimentary tract, so that the stools soon become 

 thin, purulent, and bloody. Great emaciation supervenes, and the hog staggers in 

 walking. Purulent matter and blood are sometimes passed oif by the animal. The hair 

 begins to fall off as the hog becomes more and more emaciated, and a small miliary 

 eruption is to be seen all over the skin. Without relief he will soon die. Sometimes 

 he dies much earlier in the attack, which is caused by this purulent matter entering 

 the blodd, by which means it is conveyed to the heart and brain, and causes the animal 

 to turn round in a circle until it drops dead. Could this eruption be thrown out at 

 the commencement of the attack, and the hog kept for one week in a dry house where 

 there is no dust, he would soon recuperate. But where measles is complicated with an 

 inflammation of the bowels or lungs, with the usual exposure to which all hogs are 

 subject, death is almost inevitable. Hogs that are taken up and put early on treat- 

 ment are apt to recover, or at least the mortality is not so great. 



There are almost as many ways for the treatment of this disease as there are sections 

 of country in which it occurs. One old and successful farmer told me that he always 

 kept slops for his hogs made of corn or meal boiled with ashes or poke-root, and that 

 he rarely if ever lost a hog. Another stated that he used ashes, salt, copperas, and sul- 

 phur with great success. The gieat secret in all this treatment is the alkali that is 

 used. When this is administered in time it acts as an alterative, controls the secre- 

 tions of the mucous coat of the intestines, stimulates the absorbents, sets up a healthy 

 action in the lymphatics, causes the skin to assume a healthy function or action, and 

 the disease soon disappears. So you see every one has his remedy so convenient that 

 there is no necessity of going from home to obtain it. It consists in the proper use of 

 good wood-ashes and salt. 



Mr. L. G. Maynard, Hampden, Geauga County, Ohio, says: 



With very few exceptions no general diseases have prevailed among farm-animals in 

 this countj^ since the " bloody murrain " left us forty or fifty years ago. The epizootic 



