319 
SERUM AS A REMEDY FOR HOG CHOLERA. 
one of pneumonia and one apparently from septicaemia. This 
last one was the subject given io doses of serum. 
The tenth day after beginning treatment the symptoms of 
choleia had disappeared, but the subject did not improve as it 
should, but instead continued to grow thinner and weaker until 
death. It is my opinion that death in this case was due to too 
much serum, but had it not been used death would probably 
have been produced by cholera. As I have said, one of this lot 
died of pneumonia and it is in such cases as this where there is a 
development of some local affection that the use of serum is most 
often condemned, for hog cholera antitoxin will not cure these 
complications. 
It is a well-known fact that one of the characteristics of this 
disease is its liability to affect any organ of the entire body- 
This peculiarity is perhaps due to the greatly contaminated 
condition of the blood, together with the functional sympathy of 
the internal organs. And I have often thought, too, there is a 
tendency for the bacilli to accumulate at the seat of any 
local pypersemia. 
Through this condition of the blood the function of some or¬ 
gan becomes perverted, which may by functional sympathy de¬ 
range the function of some other organ. This condition may 
then be followed by congestion and even inflammation of the 
parts, which, no doubt furnishing a more suitable soil for their 
propagation, causes the bacilli to accumulate and multiply very 
rapidly, creating or increasing the already existing local inflam¬ 
mation, thereby producing pneumonia, enteritis, nephritis, or 
whatever it may be, depending upon the location. After most 
any of these local affections have become well established the germ 
of hog cholera may be destroyed and the animal succumb from the 
local trouble. For this reason serum in many cases fails to have 
the desired effect. I mention this to show the necessity of sanita¬ 
tion and early treatment in order to be successful, for any un¬ 
sanitary surroundings with the neglect of treatment for a few 
days may be all that-is necessary for the development of such 
complications which might have been avoided. 
