Even this disease is
very hard to cure; it has been known to kill within three or four
days. The animal is chiefly subject to branchos when it gets extremely
fat, and when the heat has brought a good supply of figs. The
treatment is to feed on mashed mulberries, to give repeated warm
baths, and to lance the under part of the tongue.
Pigs with flabby flesh are subject to measles about the legs,
neck, and shoulders, for the pimples develop chiefly in these parts.
If the pimples are few in number the flesh is comparatively sweet, but
if they be numerous it gets watery and flaccid. The symptoms of
measles are obvious, for the pimples show chiefly on the under side of
the tongue, and if you pluck the bristles off the chine the skin
will appear suffused with blood, and further the animal will be unable
to keep its hind-feet at rest. Pigs never take this disease while they
are mere sucklings. The pimples may be got rid of by feeding on this
kind of spelt called tiphe; and this spelt, by the way, is very good
for ordinary food. The best food for rearing and fattening pigs is
chickpeas and figs, but the one thing essential is to vary the food as
much as possible, for this animal, like animals in general lights in a
change of diet; and it is said that one kind of food blows the
animal out, that another superinduces flesh, and that another puts
on fat, and that acorns, though liked by the animal, render the
flesh flaccid.
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