and cleanliness; cooling wholesome food alone should be given, and water, in which barley-meal has been dissolved. Nothing of a rich or heating nature should be allowed to come within reach of the animal. As external applications, mercurial ointment may be moderately applied to the ulcerated parts, or the common mange ointment composed of sulphur and antimony.
In all probability the reason why this and many other diseases of swine have hitherto been regarded as incurable, is that men of science, educated veterinarians, have as yet given but little of their attention to these useful animals, and deemed the study of their diseases and of the means of treating them beneath their notice. Nor is the owner without his share of blame, for he too often either abandons the poor brute to its fate, or calls in the aid of the pig-butcher or some ignorant empiric.
There have been numerous opinions advanced relative to the predisposing causes of leprosy; some authors attribute it to exposure to the inclemency of the weather, insufficient food, and damp marshy localities; and urge in support of their opinion that the disease was much more prevalent and fatal when swine were turned into the woods and forests during certain periods of the year to seek their own food than it is now when they are comfortably lodged and more care devoted to their feeding. Others have attributed it to some pernicious qualities in the water which the animals drink, or in the food which is given to them; and with both these parties we are inclined to agree, and to attribute this disease in a great measure to vitiation of the blood.
The wild boar appears to be exempt from it; nor is leprosy known in America, Russia, or Spain, if we may believe the testimony of various authors and travellers.
Some have asserted it to be hereditary; but there are numerous facts on record in which some of the progeny of a perfectly healthy boar and sow have proved leprous, while a diseased sow has produced sound and healthy young.
Another question has likewise been much discussed, namely, the propriety or safety of eating the flesh of pigs that have died of this disease. These animals, however good condition they may appear to be in, are rather bloated than fat; the flesh is soft and flabby, and tasteless, and will not keep; the bacon pale in color and wanting consistency. Soup made with such flesh is white, greasy, and insipid, and has been known to produce vomiting and diarrhœa. We are not aware that there are any records of disease or other evil resulting from the eating of the flesh of leprous pigs; nevertheless it stands to reason that it cannot be wholesome, and should not be made use of, for although no immediate ill effects may follow the eating of it, we cannot tell what insidious evils such vitiated and diseased food may engender in the human frame.
