Swine are subject to nearly the same hereditary diseases as sheep. Epilepsy is more common with them than with the latter, and they are more liable to scrofula than any other domestic animals. When properly and carefully managed, swine are not ordinarily very liable to disease, but when, as too often kept in small, damp, filthy styes, and obliged constantly to inhale noxious effluvia, and to eat unsuitable food, we cannot wonder either that they become victims of disease or transmit to their progeny a weak and sickly organization. Swine are not naturally the dirty beasts which many suppose. "Wallowing in the mire," so proverbial of them, is rather from a wish for protection from insects and for coolness, than from any inherent love of filth, and if well cared for they will be comparatively cleanly. The practice of close breeding, which is probably carried to greater extent with swine than with any other domestic animal, undoubtedly contributes to their liability to hereditary diseases, and when those possessing any such diseases are coupled, the ruin of the stock is easily and quickly effected, for as already stated, they are propagated by either parent, and always most certainly and in most aggravated form, when occurring in both. With regard to hereditary diseases, it is eminently true that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." As a general and almost invariable rule, animals possessing either defects or a tendency to disease should not be employed for breeding. If, however, for special reasons it seems desirable to breed from one which has some slight defect of symmetry, or a faint tendency to disease, although for the latter it is doubtful if the possession of any good qualities can fully compensate, it should be mated with one which excels in every respect in which the other is deficient, and on no account with one which is near of kin to it.