284 Seventeenth Annum, Repokt of the 



likely to implicate other organs, leading in different cases to 

 detachment of the sole or of the whole hoof, or the sloughing off 

 of the entire member up to the pastern, fetlock or near the knee 

 or gambel. The horns, too, are sometimes detached and the tips 

 of the tail or ears ; abortions occur in pregnant cows ; and nervous 

 debility (lethargy, paralysis, unsteady gait), or excited nervous 

 action (muscular jerking, delirium, exaggerated muscular contrac- 

 tions, spasms). It is not communicated by inoculation. 



Mycotic stomatitis, a form of the class just named and due to 

 saccharomyces albicans, extends in susceptible animals and is 

 common to the entire cavity of the mouth, where it is manifested 

 by redness, tenderness, and the formation of a white, elevated false 

 membrane or pellicle, which early detaches itself, leaving a raw, 

 red, bleeding surface. But it forms no blisters, does not extend to 

 the feet and teats and cannot be inoculated so as to produce the 

 vesicles of foot and mouth disease. 



Irritant plants. Acrid plants lodging in the cheeks may pro- 

 duce local inflammations and erosions with profuse salivation 

 which might suggest foot and mouth disease, especially if a whole 

 herd has been similarly fed and has equally suffered. Croton 

 beans or farina, euphorbium, oleander, ononis spinosa and oponis 

 repens may suffice as examples. These may produce violent 

 inflammation or pustulation of the lining membrane, but they do 

 not give rise to distinctive blisters with little or no fever, and they 

 do give rise to violent gastro-intestinal inflammation, which foot 

 and mouth disease rarely does. The ononis spinosa is of the same 

 genus with the rest-harrow and is charged by Muller with produc- 

 ing an erosive stomatitis easily mistaken for old lesions of aphtha. 



Irritant insects. Our common Spanish fly, the potato beetle, 

 the mylabris, and various hairy caterpillars produce violent 

 inflammation of the mouth and also of the stomach. 



A long list of irritant chemical agents are open to a. similar 

 charge. Weak lye (soda or potash), ammonia, the strong mineral 

 acids, glacial acetic acid, chromic acid, bichromate of potash, cor- 

 rosive sublimate and a host of others, cause violent inflammation 

 not of the mouth only, but also of the stomach and bowels. This 

 and the immunity of the teats and feet should prevent an error in 

 diagnosis. 



