Forms of Hog Cholera, 393 



C0NTAGIOUS PNEUMO-ENTEEITIS. 



Definition. — A specific, contagious inflammation of the 

 lungs and bowels, accompanied with red or purple blotches 

 on the skin. 



This is the disease known in Ireland as "red soldier/^ and 

 in this country as the "purples" and "the blue disease." It 

 is the most common and fatal form of the epidemic diseases 

 classed under the popular name "hog cholera." 



Causes. — The predisj)osIng causes of the disease are ex- 

 tremes of temperature ; wet seasons ; damp, low-lying, 

 sw^ampy feeding grounds ; drinking water impregnated with 

 decaying animal or vegetable substances ; close, filthy styes ; 

 and above all, a sudden increase of concentrated, heating, 

 highly-nutritious food, producing a plethoric state of the 

 system, and a blood surcharged with incompletely trans- 

 formed constituents. 



Such are the acknowledged predisposing causes ; whether 

 they can originate the disease is a debatable question. In 

 our opinion they cannot ; they can only lay the system 023en 

 to an easy subjection to the subtle poison of the malady, 

 which is floating in the atmosphere. This poison is almost 

 certainly a vegetable germ, of extreme minuteness (see page 

 276) ; and if it is such, the real cause of the disease can 

 be contagion only, for the "spontaneous" origin of any form 

 of animal or vegetable life has never yet been demonstrated. 



When the disease once enters a herd, its contagious 

 character cannot be doubted, and all ages, sexes and condi- 

 tions fall equally a prey to it. 



The precise nature of tlie contagion may now be said to 

 have been definitely determined. The researches of Dr, 

 Klein, in 1878, already alluded to, prove that pneumo- 

 enteritis, is, like anthrax, due to a Bacillus, a rod-like, 

 minute vegetable organism, found, however, not in the blood, 



