33 
STRONGYLUS PARADOXUS IN THE PIG. 
By Thomas James Poulton, M.R.C.V.S., Messing, Essex. 
The following cases having recently occurred in my 
practice, and not having seen similar ones recorded in 
vetei inary literature has induced me to pen this paper, 
hoping it may prove interesting to the readers of your 
invaluable Journal. That I should have stumbled over 
them, as it were, proves that we are not, while making 
post-mortem examinations, sufficiently careful in elucidating 
all the causes of disease, but are apt to shelter ourselves 
under the ipse dixit of any or every authority rather than 
pursue that original line of research which is incumbent 
on each and every one of us—losing, in a word, our own 
individuality in order to become homogeneous. We know 
that when local authorities appoint veterinary inspectors, 
diseases other than contagious are given them for investiga¬ 
tion, so that, in fact, we have greater opportunities, especially 
post-mortem , of forming correct conclusions than the higher 
or sister profession is able to secure. Let us use these 
opportunities, then, as they present themselves, carefully 
and diligently, that we may—feebly, it may be, but from 
conscientious motives—forward the interests of veterinary 
science, and we shall then be looked up to as scientific 
men whose only thought and aim is the advancement of 
science and the public weal. 
May 26th, 1879, I was requested to examine a herd of 
swine as inspector, the property of Mr. M-, reported 
to be suffering from swine fever. I found an absence of any 
eruption on the skin, of increased temperature, or increased 
foetor of the alvine or urinary dejections. There was a thick, 
moist, and husky cough ; the animals crowded together, and 
carried their muzzles erect; altogether I found it was an 
outbreak other than of swine fever. I told the owner that 
when he reported the outbreak he had stated that a pig had 
died. He said it was still in an outhouse, and forthwith 
produced the carcase. I commenced by making an autopsy 
of the stomach and intestines, which I found in a perfectly 
healthy condition. I then severed the trachea, the interior 
of which contained some frothy mucus, although its inner 
coat was of a normal colour, and, wanting to know what 
caused the mucus, I made a longitudinal incision down 
below its bifurcation, and into the bronchial tubes, where I 
found large quantities of filaria (strongyles). There was 
slight interlobular emphysema, accompanied with pink dis- 
liii. 3 
