Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-01-25
Bovine Diseases.

Among the many questions connected
with the contagious diseases OF animals
those most suitable for discussion at
this convention are the ones which are
nearest related to the subject of preven-
ton. There are still too many people
who cling to old ideas of the origin and
nature of contagious diseases. Our popu-
lar writer's still teach that they are the
result of the absorption Of foul matter
from impure air, and that good ventila-
ton and pure air are specific prevent
ives" Good ventilation and pure air
are excellent things, but if they are
specific ~preverives how can we explain
the cases of CHAMBERS which occur
among horses that seldom see the inside
of a stable. the cases of hog cholera in
the open field, and of chicken cholera
among fowls which are never housed?
Other writer's, and their name is le-
gion, tell us that the origin of hog
cholera, for instance, is easily explained
by the conditions under which hogs
are raised, particularly in the West.
Large numbers are kept together; they
have the rcprehensible habit Of crowd
ing each other to an uncomfortable de-
gree in their sleeping places; they have
so little regard for hygienic rules as to
be two or three deep. As a necessary
consequence the under hog breathes
terribly impure air; he even inspires SO
much dust that this alone would cause
inflammation of the lungs. Couple this
with his iniudicious and irregular diet,
and the origin of hog cholera is so clear
that our friends are abundantly salts
fed; they rather object to additional
evidence for fear Of unsettling beliefs
now held with the most implicit conf
dence. We are even told that foot-and-
mouth disease is as indigenous to Eng
land as the fogs and mists; that it al
ways existed and always will, because
it is provoked by the climate and man
ner of keeping the cattle. * IS x
The truth seems to be with most if
not all the contagious fevers that every
case is produced directly or Indirectly
from germs which were developed by a
case which preceded it, just as every
crop of corn is produced by seed from q
preceding crop. l care not how well
you prepare your ground, how favora-
BILE YOU make the conditions of life, you
can not get a crop of corn-so q con-
tagious fever is the result of the devel-
opmcnt of a living organism in the ami
NAL body, and you can no more get q
than you can the crop of corn. Just
here I am usually met with an argu-
ment apparently looked upon as invul-
nerable, forever demonstrating the
spontaneous production of animal
plaques. These diseases, it is said.
could not always have been contracted
from pre-existing cases for the very rea-
| son that some time in the remote there
were no p~re-existing a~nimals-there
must have been a first case Of disease.
J No doubt Of it; but this is one of those
philosophical considerations which is
not as practicable as it appears upon its
face. So, too, there must have been a
first grain of corn, q first pig, a first
sheep, a first calf; but let the young
farmer of to-day put his land in the
most favorable condition possible, and
sit upon the fence expecting the origin
de novo of his corn, his pigs, his sheep
and his cattle-you know that he might
sit there until his hair was white and
his eyes grew dim with age without see
ing such q phenomenon-no, not if his
farm took in a continent and his field of
vision embraced it all. And if the con
t%agious organisms were as large as cat
tie, sheep or pigs, or even as grains Of
corn, so that their goings and comings
might be traced as we can trace these
things, there would be no more ques-
ton of the origin OF CHAMBERS and hog
cholera from the conditions OF life than
there is of cattle from the grass If your
fields or corr from your fertile soil.
CONTAGIOUS fevers, then, are caused by
specific germs, n so long as ANIMALS
are exposed to these a considerable por-
ton will sicken and die in spite of
h~yeienic surroundings, in spite OF good
anS proper food, unless they are grant
ed an immunity by methods analogous
to vaccination.-Dr. E.. Y. Salmon, at
the Chicago Contention.
Squire Meighs, OF West Alexander.
Pa. has married 1904 couples. HIS
- T,,tsoo IS +L1 Donao S;~ol