96 A MANUAL ON THE HOG. 



disease, seldom so entirely recover as to make valuable 

 animals. The farmer should, as before mentioned, rely 

 principally upon preventive measures. These have been suf- 

 ficiently discussed already, and the reader is earnestly urged 

 to carefully consider them, and to put them in constant 

 practice. 



Swine should be carefully noticed daily, and if any evi- 

 dences of ill-health are observed, immediate measures to 

 remove every possible cause of disease adopted. The 

 premonitory symptoms of every disease should be familiar 

 to every breeder, and prompt attention given while reme- 

 dies are available, for after disease has taken firm hold upon 

 the hog, medicines will be of little avail. 



Dr. H. J. Detmers, in his report to the Missouri Board 

 of Agriculture, discusses the nature and treatment of hog 

 cholera as follows ; 



"The morbid process presents itself, in a majority of 

 cases, as a catarrhal-rheumatic, and in others as a gastric- 

 rheumatic, or bilious-rheumatic affection, and exhibits al- 

 ways, more or less plainly, a decided typhoid character. 

 As a catarrhal-rheumatic affection it has its principal seat in 

 the respiratory passages, in the substance of the lungs, in the 

 pulmonal pleura or sei^us membrane coating the external 

 surface of the lobes of the lungs, in the costal pleura or se- 

 rous lining of the internal surface of the chest, in the dia- 

 phragm, and the pericardium or serous bag enveloping the 

 heart. As a gastric-rheumatic affection, the principal seat 

 of the disease is found in the abdominal cavity, but espe- 

 cially in the liver, in the spleen or milt, in the large or 

 small intestine, and in the kidneys and ureters, and in the 

 peritoneum or serous membrane lining the interior surface 

 ot the abdominal cavity, and constituting the external 

 coat of most of the organs situated in that part of the body. 

 Hence the name " hog cholera " is an ill-chosen one ; it 

 tends to convey the idea that the disease in question is 

 similar to, or identified with, the cholera of men, which 



