CIRCULATORY AND LYMPHATIC SYSTEMS 301 



noticed by many writers. The animal persists in lying, and has no 

 inclination to stand up or walk about ; in fact, it is extremely pros- 

 trated, even from the very first, and if made to get up, it lies down 

 again immediately, pushing itself under the straw. In from thirty 

 to forty hours after an attack the neck appears slightly swollen, and 

 the skin round it, under the belly and ears, turns red, after which 

 dark blotches make their appearance in different parts of the body, 

 more particularly in the soft portions. These, in many cases, turn 

 purple, and, finally, black. The breathing is quick, and at times 

 laboured, accompanied with a groan or grunt. In some cases both 

 food and water are persistently refused, while in others there is a 

 great thirst, and, as a rule, obstinate constipation, followed by 

 profuse diarrhoea. The patient may struggle on for from eight to 

 twenty, or even more, days, and have all the indications of recovery, 

 when, on some slight disturbance, the animal will die suddenly from 

 failure of the heart's action. 



474. Treatment is not allowed, as the disease is now scheduled 

 under the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act. Cases must therefore 

 be reported to the police, and the affected animals destroyed. Prior 

 to the passing of the Act my treatment was, after ordering perfect 

 quietness, to give at the onset to an adult pig from 6 to 10 drops of 

 croton oil on a small teaspoonful of soft sugar, passing it into the 

 inside of the mouth on to the tongue, also warm water injections 

 every six or eight hours, at the same time tempting the animal 

 to drink milk and cold water containing from 1 to 2 drachms of 

 bicarbonate of soda. I had one case many years ago of a fancy-bred 

 sow, which had a very severe attack, and although the blotches on 

 the skin turned black, she recovered. Strange to say, she received 

 altogether above a drachm of croton oil at different times during her 

 illness. 



475. Measles. — A parasitic disease, recognized by the appear- 

 ance of dusky red blotches on the body of the pig, and due to the 

 presence of small bladder-worms (Cysticercus cellulose?) in the substance 

 of the muscles, which on consumption by human beings, in pork, 

 as they sometimes are, develop into tape-worms ; therefore measly 



