Lung L'lague and Cholera. 163 



because there is not enough sound blood left to carry on 

 the vital functions. 



Exercise on high ground may mitigate the hog-cholera 

 trouble, by increasing the extent of exhalation, so reliev- 

 ing the blood in some degree of the accumulated poisons.* 

 Regular daily exercise in good-sized pastures, or in open 

 grounds — of which there are many instances in Michi- 

 gan and elsewhere — together with a greater variety and 

 more albuminous quality of feed, is the only safe prevent- 

 ive treatment that can reasonably be expected to exempt 

 swine from the invasion of Bacteria. Keep the blood of 

 the hogs sound by a healthy supply of oxygen from regu- 

 lar exercise and full breathing, and Bacteria or cholera, 

 will not affect the hogs, nor vex their owners. And the 

 only sure preventive of lung-plague, Rhinderpest, or lungl 

 fevers in cows, or other cattle, is regular, moderate exercise j 

 in wholesome air, thus cooling the circulation, while sup- 

 plying a healthy proportion of oxygenated blood, that will 

 nof irritate the lungs, while such a quality of blood cer- 

 tainly forms sound tissue, in renewing general growth, or 

 in enlarging size in growing cattle or swine. 



* Probably, fermentive changes, in retained excretory matter, under a high 

 temperature of the hlood, in some parts of the circulation, originate the dan- 

 gerous and peculiar blood poisons which the scavenger Bacteria organize. 

 Certainly, the only way to prevent fermentive action in the blood, and the 

 formation of dangerous poisons in the circulation, is to maintain eflicient ac- 

 tivity of exhalation by sufficient and regular out-door exercise, both by cattle 

 and swine. The blood is cooled by increased breathing, with a proper sup- 

 ply of water also, while dangerous matters are reduced by increased excre- 

 tion, from active exercise in pure air. Some years ago we saw a report of au 

 experiment in Paris. Venous blood taken from the human veins was allowed 

 to stand and ferment sixty hours in a vessel. By this time it became so viru- 

 lent a poison that when two teaspoonf uls were administered to a dog, the 

 dog died in two hours afterwards, which shows the danger of increased poi- 

 son in the blood. The writerof this work accidentally inhaled a considerable 

 quantity of carbonic acid, set free from charcoal used in drying hops, in the 

 year 1853; the result being violent shaking with ague, caused oy this poison 

 in the blood, every day for fifty-nine days without intermission. We have 

 reliable authority for stating that a man in Carroll county, Iowa, in killing a 

 hog affected with the cholera disease, had a large drop of the hog's blood fall 

 on his hiind, the effect of which was so painful, quickly after, that he had to 

 burn the poisoned spot off the skin with a hot iron, to stop the pain and pre- 

 vent the poison spreading. 



