148 REPORT ON MURRAIN. 



passes within one field of the byre, are the only points upon which 

 suspicion can rest, as it is well known that the butchers of the 

 village use the market alluded to, and the railway also brings 

 cattle from the same place and others, where murrain is well 

 known to exist. If these facts demonstrate the cause of the 

 outbreak, we have proofs of the delicate nature of the contagion 

 of Vesicular Aphtha, and the facility with which it travels the 

 atmosphere over considerable distances. 



Duration of the Disease. — In ordinary mild cases the fever 

 subsides in four or five days, convalescence being restored about 

 the fourteenth. The raw surfaces occasioned by the vesicles 

 rapidly heal over, the animal being able to resume the ordinary 

 food about the fifth or sixth day, when improvement visiblv 

 takes plaee, and in many instances much more rapidly than in 

 animals which have not been affected. 



In severe attacks, however, great variableness occurs ; some- 

 times weeks, and even months elapse before recovery is firmly 

 established, the resulting prostration and emaciation combining to 

 render the rearing of animals through the coming winter a diffi- 

 culty of no slight character. This variety prevailed to some 

 extent in 1852-54-55, and also in 1864; but I have been en- 

 abled to trace its virulence in many instances to causes which 

 are under control, such as a want of care in communication, 

 cleanliness, ventilation, and treatment, domestic and otherwise, 

 while other farmers, &c, scrupulous in such matters, although 

 suffering from the contagion, have been exceedingly fortunate. 



I have met with but one case of murrain in the horse, and 

 that of a very mild character, arising from the animal being 

 housed in the same byre, and side by side, with milch cows 

 affected. The prevailing symptoms were sore throat and aph- 

 thous eruptions in the mouth, with febrile symptoms, loss of 

 appetite, &c, but no vesicles appeared around the coronets. It is 

 a common practice in some large towns, owing to the scarcity of 

 accommodation, to keep the horses and ponies of dairymen in the 

 cowhouses, a stall being set apart at one end. Pigs also are 

 kept under similar circumstances, which have never failed to shew 

 early symptoms of the disease, after introduction to the cattle ; 

 but in all cases which have come under my care similarly posi- 

 tioned, when pigs have always suffered, all horses, except the 

 above, have escaped. 1 have known also persons affected with 

 what they termed blisters on the tongue, while in attendance 

 upon murrained cows ; but in my estimation symptoms were 

 required to constitute lona fide Aphtha. 



Causes. — As far as these in their origin are concerned, we 

 cannot go beyond mere hypothesis. Instances of spontaneous 



