SOME ACCOUNT OF A SWINE PESTILENCE. 
679 
cases where the respiratory organs were the principal seat of 
the disease, there was generally no diarrhoea or dysentery. In 
many instances the disease appeared to be principally con- 
fined to the skin ; sometimes the nose, the ear, or the side of 
the head, was very mueh inflamed ; the ear being swollen to 
twice its usual thickness. The inflammation would spread 
along the skin, sometimes over the eye, producing complete 
blindness. Occasionally one or more legs were inflamed or 
swollen, and the inflammation also extended along the body. 
The skin, where it was inflamed, was red and swollen. Some 
had large sores on their flanks, or sides, from three to six 
inches in diameter. In one instance, at the distillery, the 
inflammation extended along the fore leg, the foot became 
ulcerated and sloughed off, and the animal recovered. Some 
appeared delirious, as if there was inflammation of the brain. 
Dr. Sutton examined the blood of four hogs which had this 
disease well marked ; they were destroyed by the knife, and 
the blood, arterial and venous, was caught in a bowl. It was 
cupped, and presented a well-marked buffy coat. Death took 
place in from one to ten days after the attack. Sudden 
changes in the weather, particularly from warm to cold, 
appeared to increase the fatality of this disease. The average 
mortality of hogs that were in pastures or fed on slop was 
from thirty-three to forty-five per cent. ; but it was frequently 
much more fatal if hogs were fed on corn, in some instances 
ranging from seventy to eighty out of the hundred, and, in 
many instances, even higher. 
From the description of the symptoms, Dr. Sutton describes 
with great exactness the pathology of the disorder. He gives 
in this part his experience of the pathology as it was derived 
from sixty-seven post-mortem examinations. 
In all cases the inflammation showed evidences of its 
diffusive character, not being confined in any instance to any 
one particular tissue. The skin frequently presented patches 
of inflammation, and often had a purple appearance. In 
cutting through parts that were the most inflamed, the skin 
was swollen, and the cellular tissue was infiltrated with serum. 
Frequently, however, the skin was merely discoloured, with- 
out any swelling -whatever. The stomach was occasionally 
distended with food, and the mucous membrane in nearly 
every instance presented evidence of inflammation, sometimes 
extending over the whole stomach, at others only in patches ; 
it was generally of a deep red colour, thickened, and frequently 
softened. Sometimes it was covered with a viscid mucus, in 
other instances there was an effusion of blood into the sto- 
mach. The mucous membrane of the small or large intestines. 
