492 THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 



user]. The person attending to the affected should not 

 be allowed to attend to those animals unaffected, as the 

 contagion can in this way be carried from one animal to 

 another. The lymph, or vaccine matter, used to vaccinate 

 l^eople for purposes of protection against small-pox is 

 obtained from cattle suffering from this disease. One 

 attack secures immunity from subsequent attacks. 



VARIOLA OVINA. 



Variola ovina, or sheep-pox, occurs in two forms. In 

 one form it is mild and by no means a serious disease, 

 but in the other form, which is described as ' malignant,' 

 it is very severe, similar to small-pox in the human family, 

 and is very fatal. In the benign form vesicles appear, 

 scabs form, and in due course of time fall off, leaving de- 

 pressions in the skin, and wool never grows upon these 

 parts again. 



Sijmptoms. — Xo vesicles appear in the malignant, as ia 

 the benign, form of the disease. The fever is well- 

 marked. The pulse is quickened, the animal dull and 

 dejected, and the animal temperature becomes elevated in 

 some cases to 108^ F. The eruption is first observed as 

 small red points, which, gradually increasing in size, fre- 

 quently become confluent. The febrile symptoms are not 

 so severe in those cases where the eruption is well-marked. 

 There is usually diarrhoea, and the urine is scant in quantity 

 and high in colour. 



Treatment. — Like all fevers, it must not be checked in its 

 course. A few doses of febrifuge medicine may be given ; 

 chalk may be administered to prevent or relieve diarrhoea, 

 and the patient should be protected from draughts, etc., 

 nursed carefully, fed well, and given tonics. 



