The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1878-07-11
9be Tarnt.
HOG CHOLERA.
Valuable Suggestions From
the Experience Of a Medi-
cal Expert.
INDIANAPoLIs, June, p

TO tie EtlttOIs Intlt0Hl turner:
| was SO pleased with Judge
Blodgett's clear and terse exposl-
ton of the hog cholera question, in
your last number, that | was re-
minded Of a promise made some
time go to add my mite Of knowl-
edge on this subject. BY the way,
Judge Blodgett shows Il thorough
knowledge of the subject: and it is
a pity a man of such good sense
should be out side OF the medical
profession.
The hog is the most abused and
least understood of all domestic
animals, He stands almost alone
in habit and structure, the elephant
being the only other cloyen-footed,
many-toed animal of the pachydcr-
matous order of mammalia, which
has been s~ubjugated by man. Like
the elephant, the hog is peculiarly
sensitive and intelligent, and may
be educated to a superior degree.
The discovery of fossil forms IN
the limestone q~uarries, under the
city of Paris, France, which resem-
bled the hog, caused the great Gu
vier to study this animal through
his geological Development, with
results which prove the hog kind of
the most remote antiquity-devel-
oping through the forms of the
anOplotherium and the ziphodon,
to the charOpotamus, Il true fossil
hog.
Our domestic hog of to-day,
through centuries of breeding, has
become more and more sensitive to
the many conditions which cause
disease, and perhaps for suscepti-
blllty and variety OF ailments he Is
hardly surpassed by man, and it is
just us sensible to class all human
diseases as man cholera us it is
TO attribute all diseases of swine to
hog cholera" And the man who
holds that he car cure, by specific
medication, the "hog cholera"
might us well make the cure extend
to man and beast, and also perform
resurrectlng miracles, to which the
calling forth or Lazarus would be
insignificant.
| have examined at least fifty
hogs, in ten years, that had died
of hog cholera" and without 60
ing into detail, | will say that all
of them died from diseases that was
precisely like typhoid fever, ty-
phold-pneumonla, pleurO-pneumo-
MIA, dIphtherla and bilious fever,
n congestion Of the kidneys. Not
only were the appearances after
death the same DIS IN those diseases
In man, but the animals, which |
closely watched had all the symp-
toms of the disease in man, and, |
may add, the treatment used was
the same, and with about us good
results. In january last Il gentle
man who had d fancy breeding herd
of swine, informed me that he had
lost four or five hogs in IA day or
two, and had about twenty-five sick
ones, and desired that | see them,
and, if possible, arrest the disease,
us some of the hogs were wor h
from one hundred to a thousand
dollars. He desired to have the
work done well, without regard to
expense. The sick hogs had a slow
fever, pulse 10 to 100, and the
thermometer ranged, in mild cases,
from 1Olo to 1912, but, as in the
human being, when it got up to
l0Go 1902, the hog died. In
most of the cases there was a peri
Cd OF relief from fever, twice in
twenty four hours, just as in the
human being, and found that the
same means would control it. |
administered morphia, quinine, er-
got, atropia, etc., by the hypoder-
mic syringe, and witnessed the
same rapid action of the medicine
that | would exp ct to find IN man.
| gave tOnlcs of lorn and bark with
like success, and after the fourth
day OF treatment nc other hogs
died. Those hogs We're under one
large shed, perhaps two or three
hundred feet long, but each was
separated by partitions and had !;
sleeping-room and yard of its own,
All these rooms we're ut once white.
washed, and ~disinfectants wer,
used. The food had been cit,
Stops and boiled corn: this wa.
changed to boiled potatoes, apples.
paIsnlps, carrots, beets and hay
the latter, the sick ones devoureC
with great relish in large quantities
To some, too sick to eat, hay tea
or cruel vas given. Among TIL,
causes of this outbreak was, 1st
the sameness of food. The hos
must have variety. There was to,
much starchy and greasy food
corn and slop-and not enough o
o IN