Page:The Hog.djvu/114

112 was observed in a pig eighteen months old. On carefully examining him after death, the muscles were discolored and softened. There were in the psoas muscles numerous cysts inclosing hydatids. Other cysts with their parietes, more thickened and fibrous, inhabited the muscles surrounding the trochanter, containing likewise hydatids. These parasites are also found in the lungs, the liver, and the cortical substance of the kidneys.

"Between the internal surface of the cyst and the hydatid was a fine white powder, resembling pulverized bones. The spinal marrow was softened about the lumbar and sacral regions, and the membranes were slightly reddened, particularly about the roots of the lumbar nerves."

It is generally the hinder parts of the pig which are paralyzed, either wholly or partially; in the former case the animal is totally unable to rise, in the latter he totters in his gait and falls when attempting to walk. Paralysis frequently accompanies chronic disease of the digestive organs, and is attended with loss of appetite, acceleration of the pulse, and swelling of the tongue. This disease is seldom obstinate; a removal of the predisposing cause, good nourishing food, a clean and well-ventilated sty, moderate exercise, and gentle purgative or cooling medicine, will generally restore the animal to perfect health in a short space of time.

This disease, which is commonly denominated Locked-jaw, is by no means an unfrequent malady among pigs. The symptoms are at first spasmodic motion of the head and of one or more of the extremities, grinding the teeth and rigidity of the jaws. This is soon followed by stiffness of the neck and greater part of the frame, and an unnatural upraised position of the head. The castration of young pigs will frequently produce this disease, especially if the animal is too well fed for a few days after the operation. It also often appears among pigs that are driven far to market, especially if when heated by travelling or exposure to the sun, they are suffered to roll themselves in ditches or streams, as they will endeavor to do. Bleeding, warm baths, lotions, &c., friction with stimulating oils, purgatives if they can be got into the mouth, if not, enemas and anodynes are the most efficient remedies. But the disease is too often fatal, and runs its course very speedily; if the animal survives the first twelve or eighteen hours, some hopes of his eventual recovery may be entertained.

Swine are by no means exempt from this frightful disease; there are numerous cases on record in which they have been inoculated by