Swine have generally been considered "unclean," creatures of gross
habits, &c.; but these epithets are unjust: they are not, in their
nature, the unclean, gross, insensible brutes that mankind suppose them.
If they are unclean, they got their first lessons from the lords of
creation, by being confined in narrow, filthy sties--often deprived of
light, and pure air, by being shut up in dark, underground cellars, to
wallow in their own excrement; at other times, confined beneath stables,
dragging out their existence in a perfect hotbed of corruption--respiring
the emanations from the dung and urine of other animals; and often
compelled to satisfy the cravings of hunger by partaking of whatever
comes in their way. All manner of filth, including decaying and putrid
vegetable and animal substances, are considered good enough for the
hogs. And as long as they get such kind of trash, and no other, they
must eat it; the cravings of hunger must be satisfied. The Almighty has
endowed them with powerful organs of digestion; and as long as there is
any thing before them that the gastric fluids are capable of
assimilating, although it be disgusting to their very natures, rather
than suffer of hunger, they will partake of it. Much of the indigestible
food given to swine deranges the stomach, and destroys the powers of
assimilation, or, in other words, leaves it in morbid state. There is
then a constant sensation of hunger, a longing for any and every thing
within their reach. Does the reader wonder, then, at their morbid
tastes? What will man do under the same circumstances? Suppose him to be
the victim of dyspepsia or indigestion. In the early stages, he is
constantly catering to the appetite. At one time, he longs for acids; at
another, alkalies; now, he wants stimulants; then, refrigerants, &c.
Again: what will not a man do to satisfy the cravings of hunger? Will he
not eat his fellow, and drink of his blood? And all to satisfy the
craving of an empty stomach.
We know from experience that, if young pigs are daily washed, and kept
on clean cooked food, they will not eat the common city "swill;" they
eat it only when compelled by hunger. When free from the control of man,
they show as much sagacity in the selection of their food as any other
animals; and, indeed, more than some, for they seldom get poisoned, like
the ox, in mistaking noxious for wholesome food. The Jews, as well as
our modern physiologists, consider the flesh of swine unfit for food. No
doubt some of it is, especially that reared under the unfavorable
circumstances alluded to above. But good home-fed pork, kept on good
country produce, and not too fat, is just as good food for man as the
flesh of oxen or sheep, notwithstanding the opinion of our medical
brethren to the contrary. Their flesh has long been considered as one of
the principal causes of scrofula, and other diseases too numerous to
mention: without doubt this is the case. But that good, healthy pork
should produce such results we are unwilling to admit. We force them to
load their stomachs with the rotten offal of large cities, and thus
derange their whole systems; they become loaded with fat; their systems
abound in morbific fluids; their lungs become tuberculous; their livers
enlarge; calcerous deposits or glandular disorganization sets in. Take
into consideration their inactive habits; not voluntary, for instinct
teaches them, when at liberty, to run, jump, and gambol, by which the
excess of carbon is thrown off. Depriving them of exercise may be
profitable to the breeder, but it induces a state of plethora. The
cellular structures of such an animal are distended to their utmost
capacity, preventing the full and free play of the vital machinery,
obstructing the natural outlets (excrementitious vessels) on the
external surface, and retaining in the system morbid materials that are
positively injurious. At the present time, there is on exhibition in
Boston a woman, styled the "fat girl;" she weighs four hundred and
ninety-five pounds. A casual observer could detect nothing in her
external appearance that denoted disease; yet she is liable to die at
any moment from congestion of the brain, lungs, or liver. Any one
possessing a knowledge of physiology would immediately pronounce her to
be in a pathological state. Hence, the laws of the animal economy being
uniform, we cannot arrive at any other conclusion in reference to the
same plethoric state in animals of an inferior order.
Professor Liebig tells us that excess of carbon, in the form of food,
cannot be employed to make a part of any organ; it must be deposited in
the cellular tissue in the form of tallow or oil. This is the whole
secret of fattening.
At every period of animal life, when there occurs a disproportion
between the carbon of the food and the inspired oxygen, the latter being
deficient,--which must happen beneath stables and in ill-constructed
hog-sties,--fat must be formed.
Experience teaches us that in poultry the maximum of fat is obtained by
preventing them from taking exercise, and by a medium temperature. These
animals, in such circumstances, may be compared to a plant possessing in
the highest degree the power of converting all food into parts of its
own structure. The excess of the constituents of blood forms flesh and
other organized tissues, while that of starch, sugar, &c., is converted
into fat. When animals are fed on food destitute of nitrogen, only
certain parts of their structure increase in size. Thus, in a goose
fattened in the manner alluded to, the liver becomes three or four times
larger than in the same animal when well fed, with free motion; while we
cannot say that the organized structure of the liver is thereby
increased. The liver of a goose fed in the ordinary way is firm and
elastic; that of the imprisoned animal is soft and spongy. The
difference consists in a greater or less expansion of its cells, which
are filled with fat. Hence, when fat accumulates and free motion is
prevented, the animal is in a diseased state. Now, many tons of pork are
eaten in this diseased state, and it communicates disease to the human
family: they blame the pork, when, in fact, the pork raisers are often
more to blame. The reader is probably aware that some properties of food
pass into the living organism being assimilated by the digestive organs,
and produce an abnormal state. For example, the faculty of New York
have, time and again, testified to the destructive tendency of milk
drawn from cows fed in cities, without due exercise and ordinary care in
their management, giving it as their opinion that most of the diseases
of children are brought about by its use. If proof were necessary to
establish our position, we could cite it in abundance. A single case,
which happened in our own family, will suffice. A liver, taken from an
apparently healthy sow, (yet abounding in fat, and weighing about two
hundred pounds,) was prepared in the usual manner for dinner. We
observed, however, previous to its being cooked, that it was unusually
large; yet there was no appearance of disease about it; it was quite
firm. Each one partook of it freely. Towards night, and before partaking
of any other kind of food, we were all seized with violent pains in the
head, sickness at the stomach, and delirium: this continued for several
hours, when a diarrhoea set in, through which process the offending
matter was liberated, and each one rapidly recovered; pretty well
convinced, however, that we had had a narrow escape, and that the liver
was the sole cause of our misfortune.
Hence the proper management of swine becomes a subject of great
importance; for, if more attention were paid to it, there would be less
disease in the human family. When we charge these animals with being
"unclean creatures of gross habits," let us consider whether we have
not, in some measure, contributed to make them what they are.
Again: the hog has been termed "insensible," destitute of all those
finer feelings that characterize brutes of a higher order. Yet we have
"learned pigs," &c.--a proof that they can be taught something. A
celebrated writer tells us that no animal has a greater sympathy for
those of his own kind than the hog. The moment one of them gives a
signal, all within hearing rush to his assistance. They have been known
to gather round a dog that teased them and kill him on the spot; and if
a male and female be enclosed in a sty when young, and be afterwards
separated, the female will decline from the instant her companion is
removed, and will probably die--perhaps of what would be termed, in the
human family, a broken heart!
In the Island of Minorca, hogs are converted into beasts of draught; a
cow, a sow, and two young horses, have been seen yoked together, and of
the four the sow drew the best.
A gamekeeper of Sir H. Mildmay actually broke a sow to find game, and to
back and stand.
Swine are frequently troubled with cutaneous diseases, which produce an
itching sensation; hence their desire to wallow and roll in the mire and
dirt. The lying down in wet, damp places relieves the irritation of the
external surface, and cools their bodies. This mud and filth, however,
in which they are often compelled to wallow, is by no means good or
wholesome for them.