Commissioner of Agriculture 287 



the foot and mouth disease germ with other pathogenic organisms 

 derived from the filth. The shedding of the hoofs is common, and 

 destructive inflammation of the bones and joints of the lower limb 

 is by no means a rare occurrence. 



LOSSES IN" ANIMALS 



Aphthous fever is, as a rule, a very mild affection, the mortality 

 in mature animals kept in good condition rarely exceeding 2 to 5 

 per thousand. Under extraordinary conditions a much higher 

 mortality has been temporarily attained, due, it may be, to a 

 transient extreme potency of the germ, to an unusual susceptibility 

 of the animals exposed, to the fact that the disease has been con- 

 centrated on the vital internal organs and, above all, to the 

 unwholesome, unhygienic environment of the victims. 



An epizootic occurring at the season of habitual parturition, and 

 involving the mammary glands of the dams, may produce in the 

 offspring one of the fatal internal localizations of the disease 

 (pharangeal, gastric, intestinal, bronchial, or pulmonary) and 

 virtually the whole progeny of the year may be lost). To say, 

 however, that a loss of 50 per cent, in cattle, 70 per cent, in sheep, 

 and 90 per cent, in swine, is characteristic of the disease, is a 

 gross and most injurious misrepresentation. In one unwholesome 

 London dairy, Professor Brown reported nearly 20 per cent, mor- 

 tality; in similar circumscribed areas Fleming claimed 10 per 

 cent. ; Friedberger and Froohmer quote localities in which as much 

 as 50 per cent, of mature animals perished, but one swallow does 

 not make a summer nor one hailstorm a winter. The usual experi- 

 ence with the disease is that with animals in otherwise good 

 hygienic conditions, all recover in about 15 days, and the patients 

 are entirely well again in a few days more. 



Mr. McMinn's statistics for Scotland of the Agricultural Cattle 

 Insurance Co., covering a period of six years, 1855 to 18G0, when 

 aphthous fever was rampant in Great Britain, furnishes 1474 

 deaths, but not one from foot and mouth disease. 



PECUNIARY LOSSES FROM THE DISEASE 



The fact that nearly all animals recover does not do away with 

 the other fact that in generally infected countries foot and month 



