NINTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X 463 
blisters in the mouth and very rarely by similar ones on the fingers. The 
disease is very seldom fatal, and chiefly restricted to children and to 
those adults who handle sick animals or diink large quantities of un- 
boiled milk. Some veterinarians regard tho human affection as by no 
means uncommon in countries where foot-and-mouth disease prevails, but 
that the disturbance of health is usually too sMght to come to the notice 
of the family doctor. 
The disease prevails in European countries and occasions great losses. 
Although the actual mortality is quite low, serious losses result from the 
diminution of the milk secretion and consequent interference with the 
business of the dairy. There is likewise more or less loss of flesh in 
animals. 
Every appearance of foot and mouth disease upon American soil has 
been quickly follov/ed by the total suppression of the disease, and it 
will therefore be necessary to go abroad for evidences of the devastation 
which always follows in the vrake of an outbreak of this scourge and for 
estimates of the loss which it entails upon the farmers and stock owners 
in affected districts. 
According to the very accurate statistics collected by the German 
Empire, 431,235 head of cattle, 230,868 shsep and goats, and 153,808 swine 
w^ere affected with' the disease in that country in 1890. The infection, 
quite insignificant in 1886, had been gradually spreading until it reached 
the enermous figures given above in 1890. During this same year it pre- 
vailed in Franco, Italy, Belgium, Austria-Hungary, Switzerland, Rou- 
mania, and Bulgaria. 
The losses from this disease in England in the year 1883 were esti- 
mated at $5,000,000. An English practitioner of wide experience states 
that it is none too high to place the loss upon each animal that becomes 
infected but that ultimately recovers at $20, when milch cows or feeding 
cattle that are nearly finished are under consideration. On store cattle 
and calves the loss is proportionally less. 
Estimating the losses upon the surviving animals from this basis and 
adding the value of those that die, it will be seen that an outbreak of 
this disease may quickly result in direct losses of many millions of dol- 
lars. In addition to this, a considerable spread of the contagion in this 
country would entail the entire loss of our export trade in live animals, 
interruptions of domestic commerce, and quarantines, which v\'ould sur- 
pass the loss caused by the ravages of the disease. 
Unlike most other infectious disea,ses, foot-and-mouth disease may 
attack the same animals repeatedly. The immunity or protection con- 
ferred is thus only of limited duration. Hence protective inocculation 
with the virus, in whatever manner it may be practiced, is not only of 
no use, but decidedly dangerous, as it will introduce the disease. It is, 
however, not uncommon in European countries to practice inocculation 
after the disease has appeared in a herd in order to hasten its progress. 
This is highly recommended by some, since it not only hastens the 
infection, but the disease is apt to be milder and limited to the mouth. 
It consists in rubbing with the finger or a piece of cloth a little of the 
