CHAPTEK XXV. 



SWINE FEVER. 



PIG TYPHOID, or swine fever, is a highly contagious disease peculiar 

 to swine, causing death in from ten to thirty days, associated with 

 a nbrinous pneumonia, enlargement of, and haemorrhage into, the 

 lymphatic glands, and characteristic ulcers of the mucous membrane 

 of the stomach and intestines. The lesions may assume the form of 

 extensive croupous or diphtheritic deposit, which may fill the intes- 

 tinal tube. But the most characteristic appearance results when 

 the lower part of the ileum and commencement of the colon is 

 dotted all over with elevations of the mucous membrane, resembling 

 leather buttons or iiux vomica seeds, and sometimes with concentric 

 rings, so that they have been compared to slices of calumba root. 



Swine fever is difficult to detect in the early stage, and sometimes 

 symptoms are absent altogether in animals suffering from the 

 disease and quite capable of transmitting it ; or nothing may be 

 noted except cough, and possibly enlargement of the inguinal glands. 

 In typical cases the animals are noticed not to feed, to exhibit 

 dulness, and to have occasional rigors. Partial paralysis may 

 follow, producing unsteady gait or loss of power over the hind legs. 

 Diarrhoea sets in, and the evacuations become blood stained. There 

 is occasionally a diffused or patchy reddish or purplish rash on 

 the skin. After death the appearances most commonly found are 

 inflammation of the peritoneum, and redness and enlargement of the 

 mesenteric glands and the lymphatic glands in the lungs. There 

 is generally ulceration, especially of the colon and ileo-csecal valve, 

 or a diphtheritic exudation, sometimes pale yellow, more commonly 

 greyish or black, similar to the centres of necrosis within the ulcers. 

 The spleen is enlarged and liver congested, and there are haemorrhages 

 in the kidneys. As the lungs are so commonly affected, Klein 

 proposed the name pneumo- enteritis ; but the pulmonary lesions 

 are not constant. Indeed, the cases in which the intestines and 



347 



