12 INTRODUCTION. 



worms." By putting an iron ring through the 

 cartilage of its nose we thus deprive it of the power 

 of searching for and analyzing its food, and by do- 

 ing so we prevent it from getting substances which 

 would be very beneficial for the maintenance of its 

 health. To be profitable it is necessary to feed 

 pigs more food than they could obtain in a natural 

 state, in order to bring them to maturity as fast as 

 possible, and this is done at the expense of the an- 

 imal's health. Seeing that this has to be done, we 

 ought to consider what kind of food is best to ob- 

 tain this result and at the same time keep the ani- 

 mal in a vigorous condition. Yeo says that if an 

 animal is in perfect health the pure alkaline blood 

 circulating through the tissues of the body pre- 

 vents the germs of disease from finding a suit- 

 able place to develop. Let us look for a short time 

 at the physiological actions of some of the most 

 important organs of the animal body, as we will 

 then be better able to understand some of the 

 causes of ill health. The stomach of the pig in its 

 natural state is small and the intestines have great 

 assimilating power. In this capacity the pig is 

 ahead of all other animals, which accounts for its 

 taking on fat so rapidly. By giving large quanti- 

 ties of food the stomach becomes distended, and 

 in some cases, weakened so that it cannot digest 

 the food properly and it passes out of the stomach 

 in this condition into the intestines, where it acts 

 as a foreign body, setting up disturbance, derang- 

 ing the mucous membrane, leaving it in a condition 

 favorable for the development of microbes and 



