Commissioner of Agriculture 345 



young farmer who milked a considerable herd, and was himself 

 very fond of the fresh milk, continued to drink this liquid for a 

 time, not dreaming of anything worse than a simple eruption on 

 the cow's teats. He, however, became feverish and ill, had a hot, 

 sore mouth and pains in the abdomen attended with diarrhoea. The 

 fever soon passed but it left a feeling of profound depression and 

 weakness. His child, equally fond of milk, was attacked in the 

 same way, becoming hot, restless and irritable. The mouth be- 

 came sore with frothing about the lips and a disposition to make 

 a smacking sound with her mouth, suggestive at once of the charac- 

 teristic smacking by the sick cow. This smacking showed itself 

 even during sleep. The abdomen became tender to the touch and 

 diarrhoea set in, as in the case of the father. In the child, too, the 

 fever was of short duration and recovery was rapid, as is charac- 

 teristic of aphthous fever. Another child in a neighboring family 

 suffered in the same way. About two and one-half miles from 

 these a smaller herd suffered, and a child of the family, who drank 

 the fresh milk, had an attack exactly like that of the one first 

 mentioned. 



Another case at East Seneca, though not quite so clear, was 

 strongly suggestive of aphthous fever. The herd supplying the 

 establishment was universally and severely affected with the 

 disease, and the head of the establishment was busily engaged in 

 examining one of the animals when he was urgently called to see 

 a sick child. He went at once and did what he could for the 

 patient, administering the medicine with his own hands. There 

 followed in the child a high but transient fever, with intense in- 

 flammation of the mouth and an unusually profuse salivation. 



Three families in Monroe County and one in Orleans County 

 were affected with equivocal symptoms, including high but tran- 

 sient fever, eruption on the mouth, vomiting, abdominal tender- 

 ness, and digestive disorder. These were widely published as 

 cases of aphthous fever, but there Avas no satisfactory proof that 

 they were so. If aphthous fever at all, it was evidently com- 

 plicated with another intercurrent disease, but in the one case 

 which came under my notice early enough to warrant any hope of 

 successful inoculation, the two calves inoculated developed no symp- 

 toms of foot and mouth disease. 



