taken by the then Veterinary Adviser of the Board, to
which further reference is now inadvisable, and to the general
opposition of pig-keepers who had as little faith in many of the post
mortems and their results as in the power of the authorities to stamp
out the disease which under various names had been more or less common
in the country so long as they could remember. Doubts were also passed
on the infectivity or contagiousness of swine fever, or as it was
variously termed red soldier, spots, etc.

This disbelief was probably due in part to the fact that some of the
external symptoms of swine fever, swine erysipelas, and heart disease,
such as discoloration of the skin were of a similar character. In some
instances this redness of the skin, which was looked upon as a sure sign
that the pig had died from swine fever, did not prove to be infectious,
as no other cases followed amongst the in-contact pigs. This led to the
general belief that swine fever was not necessarily infectious.
Dissatisfaction with the arbitrary manner in which the restrictions in
movement, etc., were carried out did not mend matters, nor help to
render the efforts of the Board more successful.

At the present time it is imperative on the part of the owner of an ill
pig to report the fact to the nearest policeman. The owner then merely
carries out the instructions supplied to him by the police so that it is
almost unnecessary to state that the symptoms of swine fever are
several. At times the attack is of so virulent a nature that a pig may
take its food all right in the afternoon and be dead the next morning,
no discoloration of the skin or other external symptoms being visible
before or immediately after death.

As a rule when the pig is attacked the first symptom is loss of
appetite, generally accompanied by a feverish condition of the skin
which shows more or fewer red spots behind the shoulder, and inside the
thighs, or in those portions of the body where the skin is the thinnest
and most free from hair. The great desire of the affected pig is to
burrow into the litter and to remain undisturbed, save when the feverish
thirst impels it to seek moisture of any sort or kind, even urine which
may have settled into any unevenness of the floor of the sty.

Many of the ailing pigs suffer from a dry, husky cough, a gummy
discharge exudes from the eyes and forms a ring round them, the ankles
become affected, and the muscles of the back become wea