188 THE HOG. 



tion they keep up, worry and fatigue the animals, and effectually 

 prevent them from thriving. Eric Viborg states that these vermin 

 sometimes burrow their way into the, flesh and come out through 

 the eyes, nostrils, or mouth, or have even been known to be voided 

 in the urine. 



The first step to be taken towards effecting a cure is thoroughly 

 to cleanse the skin from every particle of dirt, and to clean out and 

 whitewash the styes and put in fresh dry litter. 



Mercurial ointment, turpentine, or tobacco-water, are the most 

 efficient agents in the destruction of these unwelcome parasites. A 

 little sulphur or Ethiop's mineral and bay-salt may be given inter- 

 nally. 



The preventive means are strict attention to cleanliness both in 

 the styes and in the animals themselves. Whenever a pig is observed 

 to be lousy, which will quickly be perceived by his rubbing himself 

 against the gates, trees, and walls, he must be immediately separated 

 from his companions, or they too will become infested with lice, if 

 they are not already so. 



Parkinson is of opinion that " the cause of vermin infesting ani- 

 mals clearly arises, in a general way, from bad feeding, which occa- 

 sions weakness of the blood ; for," says he, " if an animal be ever 

 so lousy, by giving him strong food for a few days the vermin will 

 disappear, probably because the rich blood is poison to them." He 

 considers that a free access to water for bathing, and also occasional 

 exposure to heavy rain, is not only necessary to the general health 

 of swine, but a most excellent preservative against vermin. 



LEPROSY. 



This disease has apparently existed in swine from the remotest 

 periods, and Tacitus gives it as his opinion that it was because the 

 hog was subject to leprosy that the Jews were forbidden to eat of 

 its flesh. It consists in the development of certain vesicles, or whit- 

 ish granulations, in all parts and portions of the cellular tissue ; which 

 vesicles have been proved to be neither more nor less than a species 

 of worms termed the cysticercus cellulosn, supposed by some French 

 authors to be of the same species as that found in the brain of sheep. 

 There are however considerable differences between these two. The 

 cysticercus is found in all the cellular tissues and soft parts through- 

 out the whole of the body ; in the fat, in the adipose matter, in the 

 interstices between the muscles, in the viscera, and, in short, in every 

 crevice into which they can insert themselves. The thigh or ham 

 has been mentioned by some authors as the principal seat of these 

 vesicles, but they are also found on the shoulders, around the jaws, 

 along the neck and belly, and even underneath and around the root 



