DAIRY MEETING. IIQ 



time in 1870, coming to us by the way of Canada, through the 

 importation into Canada of a few infected cattle. It seemed at 

 that time to have invaded to a slight extent certain parts of New 

 York state and parts of some of the New England states. It 

 lasted only a few months. Strict measures were taken and it 

 was stopped. Since that time there was a very small outbreak 

 in 1884 in this State. I think at that time a few cattle were 

 imported from England and were landed at Portland and carried 

 to the quarantine station there, and from there perhaps one or 

 two herds in the State, in the immediate neighborhood, became 

 infected. The disease was quickly stamped out, however, and 

 since then we have had no foot and mouth disease in the United 

 States until this recent outbreak. 



What animals are affected by this disease? Primarily it is 

 the cloven footed animals, cattle, sheep and swine, but the other 

 farm animals are not exempt. The horse is occasionally 

 attacked, also dogs and sometimes even poultry. Man is also 

 attacked by this disease. We have many instances of men having 

 been affected in the olden days. All the members of a cloister 

 have become diseased by drinking the fresh milk from infected 

 cattle. Some years ago, perhaps thirty or forty, Prof. Hertwig, 

 a very learned scientific German, experimented upon himself. 

 He and two of his friends undertook to prove whether the dis- 

 ease could be transmitted to man, and consequently drank milk 

 from infected animals. In a very few days they became ill with 

 foot and mouth disease. So that nearly all animals, and man 

 as well, can be affected by this scourge. 



What are the symptoms? I will begin by describing shortly 

 the symptoms as they appear in cattle, as those are the animals 

 in which we are more apt to see it first. Two or three days, as 

 a rule, after exposure to the disease, sometimes even twenty-four 

 hours after, the animal begins to show signs of sickness, uneasi- 

 ness, lack of desire to feed, saliva running more or less from the 

 mouth, general uneasiness. If at that time the temperature is 

 taken it will be noted that it runs quite high, 106 or 107, some- 

 times higher. Very shortly after this, a day or two, the slobber- 

 ing or flow of saliva from the mouth increases, and if the mouth 

 is examined at such times it will be found that the mucous mem- 

 brane is decidedly reddened, and in places will be observed small 

 or large blisters or vesicles. These blisters are very superficially 



