194 CONTAGIOUS DISEASES. 



TEEATMENT OF ECZEMA CONTAGIOSA. 



Mild cases require little medical treatment, foot-and-mouth 

 disease being one of that kind which, running through a definite 

 course, terminates in recovery. Whilst the mouth is very sore, 

 all that the animal requires is a plentiful supply of cold water : 

 if the fever be high, the water may contain an ounce of nitrate 

 of potash dissolved in each bucketful. As a rule, however, even 

 this is unnecessary. The food should be soft and easy of mas- 

 tication — bran mashes, pulped roots, or grass. The feet must be 

 looked to, and if suppuration be detected, with separation of some 

 parts of the horn, the detached horn is to be removed, and the 

 exposed sensitive surfaces dressed with a mild astringent, such 

 as a solution of acetate of lead, containing a small modicum of 

 carbolic acid. What I usually prescribe is an ounce of the con- 

 centrated solution of pure carbolic acid — one part acid to sixteen 

 hot water — to twelve of the white lotion. Pledgets of tow dipped 

 in this lotion are to be bound to the foot by a bandage. This 

 simple expedient, so generally neglected, will often prevent a 

 lameness of many weeks' or even months' duration ; for suppu- 

 ration, once established to any great extent in the sensitive 

 structures of the foot, causes violent pain, increases the inflam- 

 mation, and induces the process of sloughing. Some writers 

 recommend a variety of remedies both to the mouth and feet. 

 My experience leads me to the conclusion that, except carefully 

 washing the feet, the less medical interference the better. 



Now and then cases will be marked by extreme prostration of 

 strength, entire loss of appetite, inability to stand from weak- 

 ness as well as from the lameness; such ought to be more 

 actively treated, and stimulants, such as whisky, brandy, or 

 spirits of nitrous ether, administered internally, and the feet 

 washed repeatedly with cold water, and kept cool with wet 

 cloths fastened around them. In all instances, bleeding, purging, 

 and other depleting measures are most injurious. The bowels, 

 perhaps constipated at first, become loose as the disease advances; 

 but this condition is not to be interfered with, for the diarrhoea 

 may be looked upon as one result of the vis vudicatrix naturce, 

 by which the morbid material is expelled from the system. 

 Extensive sloughing of the structures of the feet is best treated 

 by more powerful antiseptics — solutions of chloride of zinc, or 



