TREATMENT OF CHOLERA 209 



cesspool has been determined to be the real cause of the outbreak. 

 In many epidemics the disease is contracted by simply drinking the 

 polluted water; in other cases it is transmitted through milk which 

 has been contaminated on the dairy farm by this impure water. 

 It is well to bear in mind, then, that in protecting your water- 

 supply, and so locating your wells as to prevent their becoming con- 

 taminated by seepage from cesspools, you are not only protecting 

 the lives of your Uve stock, but also the lives of yourself, your 

 family, and other individuals as well. 



When cholera is in the neighborhood it is often a most excellent 

 plan to add some antiseptic substance to the water for the purpose 

 of ridding the stomach and bowels of any infectious material which 

 may enter with the food. A small expense in this direction may 

 often prevent large losses from disease. 



Food-supply. — Herein lies the greatest danger of all to the 

 healthy animal, and the greatest possibilities for good in prevention 

 of the disease. Probably 90 per cent, of the outbreaks of hog- 

 cholera are directly traceable to the eating of some disease-produc- 

 ing material by the healthy animals. This infection may reach the 

 food in a great number of ways, some of which are hard to control, 

 but the more important are the following: 



Never allow your animals to feed upon the carcass of any dead 

 animal; especially, never allow them to feed upon the dead bodies 

 of hogs which have died from cholera. To do so is practically to 

 ensure the outbreak of the disease in those eating of the carcass. 

 However, hogs should not be allowed to feed upon any dead 

 animal carcass. While it is true that no other animal but the hog 

 is affected by cholera, and the animal cannot possibly get cholera 

 from the meat of some other animal, yet these dead bodies do con- 

 tain other disease germs which may attack the hog, such as tuber- 

 culosis, and these diseases lower the resistance of the animal and 

 make it the more ready victim to the inroads of cholera. 



Another danger never to be forgotten in connection with the 

 exposure of a dead animal carcass of any kind, be it horse, cow, 

 sheep, hog, or what not, in the hog lot, is the attraction of turkey 

 buzzards and carrion crows by the smell of a feast. These birds 

 can scent a dead carcass for miles, and will come great distances to 

 feast upon any dead carcass that may be exposed. These birds 



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