REPORT ON MURRAIN. 145 



blood becomes impure, and doubly so from imperfect aeration at 

 the lungs ; nervous power declines, which is succeeded by coma 

 and death. In some cases suppuration takes place from large 

 swellings in various parts of the body, as the shoulders, loins, 

 hips, &c, from which the skin sloughs off, exposing deep vacant 

 places in the muscles, and giving exit to large quantities of 

 matter, and as tardy in their healing powers as in their previous 

 maturation. 



In Sheep the loss of condition is rapid, and early succeeded 

 by thorough emaciation and prostration of the vital powers ; 

 mastication is retarded; locomotion all but an impossibility, 

 from the tendency of the disease to be confined to the feet in its 

 greatest intensity ; the whole course is slow and retarded, ren- 

 dering recovery in these animals of a very tedious, lengthened, 

 and unsatisfactory nature, in a great measure resulting from the 

 extreme difficulty in distributing the necessary minute attention 

 to individuals comprising such large flocks in various parts of 

 the kingdom, together with peculiar influences excited upon 

 them by locality, and the effects of dirt, moisture, &c, &c, as 

 irritants constantly applied, which perpetuate the existence of 

 sores, and induce ulceration and sloughing. The poor creature 

 moves upon his knees when required, and as disease assumes 

 more and more the chronic form, serious losses result to the 

 proprietor by the impediment thus set up against the practica- 

 bility of restoring lost condition among such numbers. Sup- 

 puration proceeds slowly and obstinately; the feet are hot, 

 and softer structures above raw and exquisitely sore ; and 

 at length the hoof is thrown off. If matters do not stop here, 

 bones, tendons, and ligaments are exposed and sometimes seques- 

 tered, and fungoid granulations are pushed forward with a 

 rapidity the most astonishing. 



Pigs suffer much from irritative fever, and exhibit the symp- 

 toms much earlier than most other animals, with the unerring 

 tendency to sloughing of the hoofs. " Pain and lameness is early 

 manifested by the screams emitted when required to move ; pro- 

 fuse salivation and champing of the jaws indicate the vesicular 

 eruption of the mouth, which is soon followed by ulceration ; 

 the appetite is absent ; constipation gives way to diarrhoea ; cough 

 is present ; rapid emaciation comes on, followed by speedy death. 

 At times the skin over the body becomes red and irritable, be- 

 ing considerably elevated, swollen, and inflamed in the ab- 

 domen, and on the legs above the hoofs, which is succeeded by 

 ulceration and sloughing if not early attended to. The disease 

 exhibits all the characters of its contagious nature in these ani- 

 mals, and is particularly fatal to young ones — its putrid type 



K 



