The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1884-01-18
Bovine Diseases.

Among the many questions connected
with the contagious diseases OF an mails
those most suitable for d scussion al
this convention are the ones which are
nearest related to the subject of proven.
ton. There are still too many PEG le
who cling to old d as of the origin anC
nature of contag GUS diseases. Our popu.
lar writers still teach that they are the
result of the "absorpt on of foul matter
from impure air, and that good ventila
ton and pu air are specific prevent
ives" Good vent lation and pure all
are excellent tn nos, but if they are
specific prevantives how can we explain
the cases of CHAMBERS which Occur
among horses that seldom see the inside
of stable. the cases of hog cholera il
the open fed, and of chicken cholers
among fowls which are never housed?
Other writers. and the r name is lie.
gion, tell us that the origin Of hog
cholera, for instance, is easily exnl inec
by the conditions under which h pgs
are raised, particularly in the West
Large numbers a"e kept together; they
have the reprehens bic habit of crowd.
inc each other to an uncomfortable de.
gree n their sleeping pla ees; they have
so little regard for hygienic rules as te
be two or three deep. As a necessary
con equence the under hog breath
terribly impure air; he even INSPIRES sc
much dust that this alone would cause
intiamma ion of the lungs. Couple this
W tn his injudicious and irregular diet
and the origin of hog cholera is SO cleal
that our friends are abun !antly salts.
fed; they rather object TO add tiona,
evidence for fear of unsettling beliefs
now held with thu 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.
The truth seems to be with most il
not all the contagious fevers that every
case is produced directly or Indirectly
from germs which were developed by
case which preceded it, just as every
crop of corn is produced by seed from
preced m crop. l care not how well
you prepare your ground, how favora-
bic YOU make the cond tioEs of life, yoU
can not get a crop of cOrn-sO a con.
tag:ous fever is the result of the devel
opm Mt of living organism in the ami.
NAL body, and YOU can no more get a
crop of that organism without seed
than you can the crop of corn. just
here / 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 pre-eXisting animals-there
must have been first case of disease
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, a first pig, first
sheep, a first calf; but let the young
farmer of to-day put his land in the
m st favorable cond ton poss BILE, 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 phenomenon-no, not if his
farm took in a continent and his field of
vision embraced it all. And if the con-
tagious Organisms were as large as cat
tie, sheep or pig, or even as grains of
corn. SO that their g,ings and comings
mi hit be trat Ell as We can trace these
things, there would be no more ques-
ton of the origin of glanders and log
cholera from he conditions rs life than
there is of cattle from the grass f your
fields or corn from your fertile soil.
contagious feyers, then, are caused by
specific germs. aud SO long as animals
are exposed to these con siderable por-
lion will sicken and die in spite of
hygienic surroundings, in spite of good
and proper food, unless they are grant
ed an immunity by methods an .logous
20 enthusiastically. E.. v Salmon, at
he Chica % Convention.