268 EPIZOOTIC APHTHA. 



spreads exclusively by contagion. There is not a single 

 satisfactory instance recorded of a spontaneous development 

 in the United Kingdom. 



In 1862 I saw the disease in the three kingdoms, and 

 in all parts of the Continent which I visited. Since 1840 

 we have never been free many months. Town dairy cows 

 especially have suffered, and when making an inquiry into 

 the health of the cows in the city of London last January, I 

 distinctly traced the disease to Dutch importations. It 

 spread rapidly northwards, and I saw it in Edinburgh a 

 week after it broke out fiercely in London. A few days 

 later it was taken to Dundee by cows exposed in the 

 markets. There were three general outbreaks in Edinburgh 

 during the first year. The malady has not been completely 

 away for many months, and it has interfered very consider- 

 ably with the supply of wholesome milk for our citizens. 



Wherever I travelled last year I saw the disease bad 

 amongst the pigs. In Birmingham especially I saw a lot of 

 Irish pigs very severely affected, losing their hoofs, and pre- 

 senting a pitiable appearance. I learnt in Waterford, at the 

 large bacon manufactories where there is accommodation for 

 several hundred pigs, that, when a lot of animals with 

 epizootic aphtha had been in the sties, the virus adhered to 

 the wood and saw-dust used as bedding so as to lead to 

 every lot of pigs being contaminated for weeks after the first 

 affected animals had been placed in them. 



The contagious matter is discharged in great abundance 

 with the saliva, and from the vesicles which form in the 

 mouth, on the teats and feet. The milk of animals affected 

 with the disease is charged with the virus, especially when 

 vesicles on the teats discharge lymph as the milk is drawn. 

 The virus is destroyed by preparations of chlorine. 



Symptoms of Epizootic Aphtha. There are certain symp- 



