TREATMENT OF CHOLERA 243 



thus prove the means of carrying the disease for miles along 

 their course. While it is probable that a certain amount of the 

 stream infection occurred from surface drainage from the infected 

 feeding pens, yet it cannot be questioned that the danger was 

 vastly added to by the seepage from the graves of the buried dead. 



Again, it gives us an example of the danger which goes with any 

 running stream which may pass through a pasture in which hogs 

 are kept. You are never in a position to say when the waters of 

 such a stream may become dangerous, and the only safe plan to 

 follow is to absolutely keep hogs out of pastures which are crossed 

 by these running streams. 



With respect to burial of dead animal carcasses, it may also be 

 added that many seemingly unimportant things may serve to 

 bring the infection to the surface again. For instance, earth worms 

 usually burrow in large numbers in freshly made graves, and they 

 frequently bring with them to the surface portions of the infected 

 carcass. Squirrels likewise are very frequently found burrowing 

 in the soft earth of these burial places, and bring large amounts 

 of the infected earth and remains of decomposing dead bodies to 

 the surface. Moles, polecats, and other rodents also have these 

 same dangerous habits. Any way you look at the buried carcass 

 it is a source of danger, and this method of disposing of the dead, 

 and especially of dead animals which have died of cholera, should 

 be discontinued. 



Remember that it is not only large animal carcasses left ex- 

 posed to the attack of buzzards which result in fatal cholera out- 

 breaks among hogs. Small animal bodies, and especially those of 

 dead chickens, may often prove to be the necessary attraction 

 for the buzzard, which is ever watchful for an opportunity to 

 supply himself with a meal from some dead body. 



I have often noted in the Central West that an outbreak of 

 cholera among the chickens in a given district was followed within 

 a few weeks by an outbreak of cholera among the hogs. In fact, 

 so common is this occurrence, many farmers have become im- 

 pressed with the fact that these diseases occur so often together, 

 they believe there is a very' close relationship between the 

 two diseases, and some even think chicken-cholera causes hog- 

 cholera. 



