336 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Dog. 



an eruption on the face or around tlie mouth, and vesicles 

 in the mouth ; and among milkers there may be sores on 

 the tips of the iingers, around the finger nails (there may 

 even be sloughing of the nails), or in the spaces between 

 the fingers. When vesicles develop in the pharynx, they 

 cause great diificulty in swallowing ; there may also be vom- 

 iting and diarrha^a when the infection takes place through 

 milk, and in the case of infants and small children the dis- 

 ease may then end in death. Recovery usually takes place 

 in ten or twelve days. Among animals it is said that one 

 attack secures only temporary immunity from another. 

 Meat from animals sufiering with epizootic aphtha has nexxT 

 been found to be infectious. 



Etiology. — Foot and mouth disease is undoubtedly a 

 germ disease, — both clinical and experimental evidence 

 indicate this, — but the specific organism which produces it 

 remains to be discovered. There are other diseases which 

 we believe to be due to a microscopic organism of some 

 description, — such, for example, as rabies, small-pox and 

 cow-pox, — in which the organism is so minute or so diffi- 

 cult to stain or cultivate that it has hitherto not been 

 demonstrated, and the bacterium of epizootic aphtha is un- 

 questionably one of this character. Nosotti, Klein, Schot- 

 telius and Kurth have studied micro-organisms found in 

 connection with the lesions of foot and mouth disease, but 

 it does not seem that the true specific cause has yet been 

 discovered. 



The vitality of the virus is not considered to be usually 

 very great. Walley says that as a rule the danger ceases 

 at the end of thirty days after the recovery of the last ani- 

 mal ; but instances are given in which troughs, hay racks 

 and stables have caused fresh outbreaks after the lapse of 

 several months. Therefore, in taking steps for the eradica- 

 tion of the disease, thorough disinfectioji of stables and 

 utensils, with destruction of all litter and manure, cannot 

 be too strictly enforced. 



The post-mortem conditions found in animals sufiering 

 from foot and mouth disease — in addition to the lesions in 

 the mouth and around the feet, and eruptions on the udder 



