264 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



had a sore throat, a slight cough, and every symptom of 

 scarlet fever. He undou1)tedly had scarlet fever, which 

 he took by inoculation in that hand from those pigs. 



(Secretary Russell in the chair.) 



Mr. Bill. I have been exceedingly interested in what 

 Mr. Grinnell has said. The subject of the diseases of pigs 

 which he has taken up is a very important matter. In my 

 own town, about two years ago, I think, citizens lost near 

 half a hundred pigs, — shoats and full-grown hogs. It was 

 called hog cholera by most people, and yet from the account 

 he has given, and from those that I saw sick, I should say it 

 was the identical thing Mr. Grinnell has described, — scarlet 

 fever. They turned red, the color spread upon them, until 

 finally, after death, they turned purple ; and the difficulty of 

 breathing, the difficulty with which they partook of their 

 food, indicated that that was the trouble. 



Now I rise for the purpose of asking what remedy 

 the doctor who made the diagnosis recommended or sug- 

 gested ? 



Mr. Grinnell. He had no remedy. He said he could 

 prescribe no further remedy than a good physician would 

 prescribe in a case of scarlet fever, and I believe in scarlet 

 fever as little medicine as possible is administered, the main 

 reliance being upon good care and nursing. At any rate, 

 he could not prescribe any medicine. But I would like to 

 draw the attention of farmers to this subject, because I do 

 not like to have them frightened with the idea of hog cholera 

 when it does not exist. Cholera is a specific disease. There 

 cannot be a case of hog cholera without showins: its effects 

 upon the bowels or intestines. In the cases to which I have 

 referred those organs were perfectly sound, perfectly natural, 

 the trouble being in the inflammatory condition of the throat. 



Mr. Burnett. The diagnosis of hos; cholera has changed 

 a good deal within the last few years. It has been pretty 

 firmly established that hog cholera is due to the presence of 

 bacteria in the blood, and that it is not a contagious disease 

 except by actual contact. That is, if you have pigs in one 

 pen that are taken down with this disease, the pigs in an 

 adjoining pen, unless they come in direct contact with the 

 diseased pigs or their excrerpent, or unless the man who has 



