ELEPHANTIASIS OF THE OX. 225 



ELEPHANTIASIS OF THE Ox. 



Several observers have witnessed, in hot countries, a, 

 disease of the skin of the ox, which they have regarded as 

 identical with elephantiasis of the human subject. The only 

 specimen I have seen relating to it is one in the Bologna 

 museum, and in the foregoing woodcut, a representation of 

 the stuffed skin is given. The case was regarded as one of 

 congenital elephantiasis. 



From the descriptions of Cruzel, Gelle', Taiche, and Pradal, 

 it would appear that when attacked with this disease, the 

 skin of the ox becomes dry, hard, thick, and wrinkled. It is 

 hot in some parts, and firmly adherent to the prominences 

 over joints in others. The hairs are dry, and pimples form 

 at the opening of the hair follicles. The cuticle separates in 

 many directions, and deep fissures soon form, which increase 

 in breadth and depth, and discharge a serous fluid, or even 

 pus; the discharge is always fetid. Scabs form, which ren- 

 der the cutaneous surface very rough, and the hairs drop off. 

 The disease may attack the whole surface of the body, or 

 only one part, such as the head. When the head is princi- 

 pally affected, the eyes are closed and the eyelid deeply 

 cracked, but vision remains unimpaired. The discharge 

 from the eyes causes the hair of the face to fall off ; the con- 

 junctiva is red and infiltrated ; the lips and margins of the 

 nostrils are thickened and tumefied; the Schneiderian mem- 

 brane is of a pink colour, and a dense, yellow discharge flows 

 from the nose. The buccal membrane retains its normal 

 appearance, and the outbreathed air is not fetid. 



If the limbs are affected, they become enormously swollen 

 and very rigid from the knees and hocks downwards ; the 

 animal cannot walk, and obstinately stands or lies, and if it 

 maintains the erect position, it does so until it falls from 



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