EPIDEMICS. 126 



to drink and to bathe themselves in. In cold and rainy weather 

 they ahould be kept in their styes ; and during the heat of summer 

 their drink should be slightly nitrated, acidulated, or salted. Whey 

 is an excellent thing for those that are weakly. Small doses of 

 camphor and nitre, with the addition of a few grains of calomel, ad 

 ministered in some cooling vegetable decoction, is a useful preventive. 

 If one pig is attacked he should be removed, and the others taken 

 out while the sty is well fumigated. 



In 1838 we have accounts of an inflammatory epizootic among 

 pigs, rapid and fatal in its course, and attacking by preference store 

 pigs rather than those put up to fatten. 



Symptoms. Prostration of strength, difficulty of breathing, dis- 

 charge from the mouth and nostrils, constant cough, and reddish 

 hue of the skin. These went on increasing in intensity until death 

 put a period to them, which usually occurred in from three days to 

 three days and a-half after the commencement of the attack. 



Treatment. Bleeding and laxative medicines, stimulating frictions 

 of the trachea and parietes of the thorax, seemed to be the most 

 efficient remedies. Doses of tartarized antimony and Hydrarg. Sub. 

 Mur. in three grains of each, administered every twelfth hour, pro- 

 duced vomiting, and appeared to give ease. Sulphate of magnesia 

 relieved those cases in which there was constipation. 



The causes seemed obscure. The epidemic prevailed in the sum- 

 mer ; but whether it arose from the warmth of the weather, from 

 want of a sufficient supply of water, or from dry and heating food, 

 was not at all evident. 



Paulet has described a very similar epidemic among swine, which 

 frequently prevails in one or the other of the arrondissements of the 

 south of France. He describes it as highly inflammatory, rapidly 

 going on to gangrene, and exceedingly contagious, but is at a loss to 

 what cause to attribute it. 



The precursory symptoms are, according to him, restlessness, 

 cough, loss of appetite, dullness, and a weak tottering gait. These 

 gradually go on increasing in intensity until the seventh or eighth 

 day, when they have become very marked. Then alternations of 

 heat and coldness of the body come on ; the ears droop and are cold, 

 the head is heavy, and the tongue becomes discolored ; the breath is 

 fetid, and there is a copious discharge of mucus from the nostrils. 

 The skin is tinged with red, but the hue is not very evident except- 

 ing under the belly : the animal appears to be in great suffering, 

 and cries out pitifully. This general inflammation of the integu- 

 ments rapidly goes on to gangrene, which alteration is evidenced 

 by the livid violet hue of the diseased surfaces. Death then rapidly 

 follows. 



He, too, prescribes bleeding, and from the ears and veins of the 

 belly, while many authors condemn it as debilitating. The only 



