FARM ANIMALS 145 



was promptly attacked by the Bureau of Animal 

 Industry in co-operation with the state author- 

 ities and completely eradicated. The method 

 of attack consisted in killing and burying all dis- 

 eased animals and paying an indemnity to their 

 owners. Foot and mouth disease is exceedingly 

 infectious and spreads rapidly throughout the 

 herd. It may be recognized by the formation of 

 eruptions on the foot and in the mouth and swell- 

 ing upon the udders. As a rule it does not cause 

 death in affected cattle, but the milk from such 

 cows is exceedingly dangerous to man. Oc- 

 casionally the disease may be complicated with 

 pneumonia or the loss of the hoofs, in which case 

 the animals must be slaughtered. A vaccine 

 method has been devised for this disease, but is 

 not very successful. In Italy good results have 

 been claimed from inoculation with a dilute solu- 

 tion of corrosive sublimate. The effectiveness 

 of this method also remains in doubt. 



Milk Fever. This is a dangerous disease pecu- 

 liar to the cow and particularly heavy milkers. 

 It ordinarily occurs shortly after calving, but 

 sometimes appears not to be directly connected 

 with this function. The name is somewhat mis- 

 leading since ordinarily there is not a high fever, 

 but, on the contrary, a lower temperature than 

 normal. The cow becomes dull and unable to 

 walk. She lies upon the breast bone with the 

 head thrown around upon one side. Many reme- 

 dies have been proposed for this disease, the first 

 of which consisted in the use of aconite and cold 

 packs on the head. Later, Schmidt worked out 

 a very successful method of treating the disease 

 by means of the injection of ten grams of iodide 

 of potash into the udder. After this treatment a 



