DISEASES OF CATTLE 287 



The course of the disease after the full maturity of the pustule ig 

 rapid where outside interference has not caused a premature rupture 

 of the small abscess at the apex of the swelling. The pustules gradu- 

 ally become darker colored and dryer until nothing remains but a 

 thick scab, which at last falls off, leaving only a slight whitish scar 

 behind. The total duration of the disease covers some twenty days 

 in each animal, and, owing to the slow spread of the infection from 

 animal to animal, many weeks may elapse before a stable can be fully 

 freed from it. The fallen scabs and crusts may retain their conta- 

 gious properties for several days when mixed with litter and bedding 

 upon the floor of the stable, and during this period they are at any 

 time capable of producing new outbreaks snould fresh cattle be 

 brought into the stalls and thus come into actual contact with them. 

 Again, the pustules may appear, one after another, on a single animal 

 in which case the duration of the disease is materially lengthened. 



Treatment. In herds of cattle that regularly receive careful 

 handling, no special treatment will be found necessary beyond the ap- 

 plication of softening and disinfecting agents to such vesicles upon 

 the teats as may have become ruptured by the hands of the milker. 

 Carbolized vaseline or iodoform ointment will be found well suited to 

 this work. In more persistent cases it may be found desirable to use a 

 milking tube in order to prevent the repeated opening of the pustules 

 during the operation of milking. Washing the sores twice daily with 

 a weak solution of zinc chloride (2 1 /2 per cent solution) has been 

 found to assist in checking the inflammation and to cleanse and heal 

 the parts by its germicidal action. When the udder is hard, swollen, 

 and painful, support it by a bandage and foment frequently with hot 

 water. If calves are allowed to suckle the cows the pustules become 

 confluent, and the ulcerations may extend up into the teat, causing 

 garget and ruining the whole quarter of the udder. 



As young cows are most susceptible to variola, the milker must 

 exercise constant patience with these affected animals so long as their 

 teats or udders are sore and tender, else the patient may contract 

 vicious habits while resisting painful handling. The flow of milk is 

 usually lessened as soon as the fever becomes established, but returns 

 to normal with the return of perfect health. 



The practice of thorough cleanliness in handling or milking af- 

 fected cattle may, in many instances, prevent the dissemination of 

 the trouble among the healthy portion of the herd, but even the 

 greatest care may prove insufficient to check the spread until it has 

 attacked each animal of the herd in turn. 



ACTINOMYCOSIS, OR LUMPY JAW. 



Cause of the Disease. Actinomycosis, also known as lumpy jaw, 

 big jaw, wooden tongue, etc., is a chronic infectious disease character- 

 ized by the formation of peculiar tumors in various regions of the 

 body ? more particularly the head, and due to the specific action of a 

 certain fungus (actinomyces). This fungus is an organism which 

 occurs in the tissues in the form of rosettes, and it has therefore been 

 termed the ray fungus. The disease is not directly transmitted from 

 one animal to another, but it seems apparent that the fungus is con- 



