Swine  Fever. 
241 
that  when  putrefaction  sets  in  the  anthrax  bacilli  soon  perish 
and  the  carcass  becomes  quite  innocuous.,  Hepce,  where  it  is 
promptly  carried  out  with  unopened  carcasses,  burial  is  a per- 
fectly safe  method  of  dealing  with  animals  dead  of  anthrax, 
and  it  has  over  the  method  of  cremation  the  advantage  that  it 
is  simpler  and  less  expensive,  and  generally  involves  less  delay. 
It  may  be  added,  however,  that  cremation  has  an  advantage  of 
its  own,  viz.,  that  the  difficulty  which  is  often  encountered  in 
consuming  by  fire  the  entire  carcass  of  an  ox  is  well  calculated 
to  call  public  attention  to  the  disease,  and  to  impress  upon 
farmers  the  fact  that  no  liberties  ought  to  be  taken  with  any 
carcass  when  there  is  the  least  susincion  that  the  cause  of  death 
may  have  been  anthrax. 
Swine  Fever.. 
The  I’esult  of  the  year’s  operations  against  this  disease  has 
been  a sensible  reduction  in  the  number  of  outbreaks.  The 
progress  which  has  been  made  towards  the  complete  eradication 
of  the  disease  is  shown  in  the  following  Table; — 
Year 
Outbreaks 
Year 
Outbreaks 
1897 
2,155 
1901 
3.140 
1898 
2,51 1 
1902 
1,688 
1899 
2,322 
1903 
1,478 
1900 
1,940 
1904 
1,196 
For  the  first  time  since  the  disease  was  taken  in  hand  by 
the  Board  of  Agriculture,  the  returns  for  the  year  justify  the 
hope  that  swine  fever  will,  before  very  long,  be  banished  from 
the  country,  as  pleuro-pneumonia  and  rabies  have  been.  Such 
an  expectation  is  held  out  not  only  by  the  reduced  number  of 
outbreaks,  but  also  by  the  restricted  areas  to  which  the  disease 
is  now  apparently  confined.  The  time  required  for  the  complete 
extermination  of  the  disease  will  depend  entirely  on  the  severity 
of  the  restrictions  imposed  on  the  movement  of  pigs  in  the 
areas  remaining  infected,  and  on  the  thoroughness  of  the 
attempts  made  to  trace  fresh  outbreaks  back  to  their  source. 
N Such  I'estrictions  are  necessarily  irksome  to  the  owners  of  pigs, 
but  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  they  will  be  patiently  borne  in  recog- 
nition of  the  fact  that  any  slackening  of  them  would  inevitably 
be  followed  by  a recrudescence  of  the  disease.  On  the  other 
hand,  now  that  the  disease  has  been  so  far  suppressed,  it  would 
probably  be  wise,  and  in  the  end  economical,  if  the  Board  of 
Agriculture  were  to  treat  all  outbreaks  by  the  prompt  slaughter 
of  both  diseased  and  suspected  pigs,  instead  of  destroying  only 
the  visibly  affected,  and  submitting  the  suspected  animals  on 
the  same  premises  to  a prolonged  quarantine. 
VOL.  65. 
R 
