142 DISEASE AMONG SWINE AND OTHER DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



Mr. J. L. Sears, Valley Mills, Bosque Couuty, Texas, says : 



We lost a few of our horses and mules last winter by a disease called bliiid-sta^^i^ers, 

 and this winter a good many work animals, both horses and mules, have died from a 

 similar disease. It is supposed to be caused or superinduced by worm-eaten corn. I 

 lost one horse and had several others attacked by the disease, but relieved them by 

 smoking with i)ine-tar, woolen rags, and red pepper, and by giving them large doses 

 of bromide of potash. I also bled in the neck. A very strange thing about this dis- 

 ease is the fact that every horse attacked loses the sight of his left eye, yet you cannot 

 detect any difi'ereuce in the appearance of the eyes. They both look natural, yet the 

 animal cannot see one particle with the left eye. They will not see yon if you approach 

 them from the blind side, but as soon as you show yourself on the riglit side they be- 

 come alarmed, Avheel from you, and throw themselves against the walls of the stable 

 with such force as often to knock themselves down. When in the lot they will con- 

 tinue to turn round in a circle until they fall, and then, unless ])ronvptly treated, will 

 die in a few hours. Out of twenty attacked in this neighborhood ten have died. 

 Since quitting corn as a feed and substituting oats my animals have done well. 



Swine have not done very well for the past two years. A great many have died 

 from a disease called cholera, but I am of the opinion that a great many more die from 

 the etl'ects of eating cotton-seeds and cockle-burs than from cholera. 



Mr. John Pit:man, London, Laurel County, Kentucky, says : 



The most troublesome disease we have to contend with is cholera among hogs. The 

 losses were A^ery heavy during last fall. With the cold weather the disease has disap- 

 peared, and no animals seem now to be affected with it. The first symptom of the disease 

 is a stiffness of the limbs, the animal moving about like a foundered horse. The eyes 

 become watery, the hog vomits frequently, and the excrements are bloody. The hog 

 generally dies within twenty-four hours. The best treatment is to change their quar- 

 ters frequently, and feed them turnips (tops and roots), potatoes, pumpkins, and such 

 things. If they can be induced to eat, the chances are favorable. If they will not eat 

 there is no need of giving them medicine. I had eight cases of cholera in the fatten- 

 ing-pen last fall. After live had died I turned the others out into a lot and fed 

 on turnips, giving slops occasionally, in which I put a little copperas and salt. The 

 three sick ones recovered on this diet. At the same time I lost about twenty pigs that 

 Avere running at large. I gave nothing in the way of medicine, except calomel to one, 

 and it died. The symptoms were stiffness, blindness, coughing, and watery eyes. The 

 whole lot died within a period of twenty days. 



Mr. AY. B. Flippin, Yellville, Marion Couuty, Arkansas, says : 



A few^ cases of hog-cholera are reported in the county, but whether the hogs die of 

 cholera or from the effects of eating cotton-seeds where cattle are fed is hard to deter- 

 mine. I am sure that more die in this locality from the effects of feeding on these 

 seeds than from other causes or with other diseases. 



Professor James Law, of Cornell University, Ithaca, ;jf. Y., says : 



A life-long study of the diseases of domesticated animals has convinced me that 

 government interference in such matters is altogether uncalled for, excepting in the 

 case of such maladies as are commuuicable by contagion or otherwise from animal to 

 animal, or from animal to man, and viae versa, and the existence of which in this coun- 

 try, or in one with which we have commercial relations, endangers our live-stock 

 interests or the health of our people. Apart from these, the duty of the Executive will 

 be sufdcieutly f ultilled in the foundation and maintenance of a fully ecpiipped veter- 

 inary college and experimental station, similar to those of Continental Europe,' and 

 under such supervision and control as will protect it against those debasing courses 

 which proved the ruin of the two earliest American veterinary colleges (Boston and 

 Philadelphia). Such a school would be of unspeakable advantage in investigating 

 the diseases indigenous to our different States and Territories, and in sending out 

 men on whose knowledge and judgment the stock-owner may implicitly rely when- 

 ever such diseases appear. It would be more reasonable for govenmient to undertake 

 to nuike every one a physician and surgeon for the human race thau to make every 

 stock-owner a safe medical adviser upon the diseases of his six or eight different genera 

 of domestic animals. 



To furnish an account of the non-tran.smissible or sporadic diseases of animals that 

 we see in this and in oMier localities would necessitate the wriMng of a considerable 

 book, and I cannot do better in this respect than refer you to " The Farmer's Veterinary 

 Adviser," which I published last year, and two copies of which will bo found in the 

 Congressional Library. It is true that these sporadic diseases are greatly increased by 



