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- 
ingthe mucous membrane, leaving it in a condition. . 
favorable for the development of microbes and 
