Page:The Hog.djvu/121

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119
STRANGLES.

first indicated; setons and puncture of the swollen glands have also been recommended, and in extreme cases there is no reason why we should not have recourse to blisters and external stimulants as counter-irritants.

A diseased animal should never be allowed to remain aomng healthy ones, as this malady is so infectious that it may almost be regarded as an epizoötic.

Mr. Cartwright, veterinary surgeon, of Whitchurch, who has paid much attention to the diseases of swine, gives the following account of some fatal cases of inflammation of the glands of the throat in the "Veterinarian:"—He says that he had six pigs attacked at nearly the same period. Their respiration was very quick; they husked and foamed at the mouth. They could not bear to be pressed on the throat, and swallowed liquids with difficulty. To some of them jalap was given, and to others castor and goose oil. One was blistered under the throat, and all bled by cutting off their tails. They died in the course of eight-and-forty hours from the commencement of the disease.

On examination he found much inflammation under the jaws and throat, and also much of swelling with effused serum. In some of their windpipes, and the branches of the bronchia, there was a great quantity of mucus, but no apparent inflammation. In one the heart appeared to be inflamed, but most probably sympathetically.

Columella thus speaks of these diseases:—"Such swine as have swellings of the glands under the throat must be let blood under the tongue; and when it has flowed abundantly, it will be proper that their whole mouth be rubbed over with bruised salt and wheat-meal. Some think it a more present and effectual remedy when they pour into each of them, through a horn, three cupfuls of garum, or salt-fish pickle; then they bind cloven tallies, or cuttings of fennel-giant with a flaxen cord, and hang them about the necks, so that the swellings shall be touched with the fennel-giant cuttings."

If we may judge by the writings of the ancients, the most prevalent diseases among pigs were those of the glands of the throat. Didymus gives a long and accurate description of them.

Hurtrel D'Arboval also gives an account of a disease of the glands of the throat, which he denominates Poil piqué, maladie piquante, or soie, and states it to be peculiar to swine: he thus describes it:—

It is situated on one or both sides of the neck, between the jugular vein and the tracheal artery. On the part affected is seen a raised tuft of hairs, differing from any of the others, being hard, rough, dull, and discolored, and exceedingly painful to the touch; and if one be pulled out the skin comes away with it. At first there is only a slight depression or concavity of the part; but the skin soon becomes red, then violet-colored, the hairs conglomerate, the parts become softened, tumefied, and even proceed to mortification. Meanwhile