Hog Cholera, 389 



infectious to a high degree, and demand stringent quarantine, 

 isolation or destruction of the herds, in order to confine their 



ravages. 



Nearly all these epidemics are of a rapidly debilitating, 

 prostrating character, forbidding bleeding, and the use of 

 depressing medicines. Their treatment is further compli- 

 cated by the difficulty in giving a hog medicine. In fact, to 

 undertake to administer a drench to a full-grown animal is 

 a dangerous undertaking ; and it is desirable, therefore, to 

 select such drugs as can be mingled with the food and drink 

 without rendering the nourishment repulsive to the animal. 

 And as he is not delicate, this can generally be accomplished. 

 Like the sheep, the pig is very subject to parasitic diseases, 

 partly owing to his uncleanly habits (which, however, be it 

 said to his credit, are the results of his domestication, the 

 wild pig being quite neat and tidy), but chiefly to his gross 

 habit of body. Of these, the trichina, measles, kidney 

 worm and mange are the most prominent examples. 



HOG CHOLERA, SO CALLED. 



Of the diseases which produce the great mortality of swine, 

 that called "Hog cholera ^^ is most notorious. In fact, 

 however, this name was applied to the disease simply because 

 it is a malignant epidemic, destroying as the cholera destroyed 

 in its first and second visits to the United States, not because 

 the symptoms in any way resemble those of Asiatic cholera. 



Three different forms of disease are popularly included 

 under this name. We have described two of them, as they 

 appear in the sheep, the ox and the horse, and we shall 

 recognize their identical traits in the hog. The first of these 

 is that known as charbon, or malignant anthrax (see pao-e 

 276). In this country it is little to be dreaded in horses 

 and sheep, but is quite destructive in oxen, and also in hogs. 

 The second variety is almost peculiar to swine, and has been 



