128 DISEASES OF THE MOUTH. 



As the disease advances the initial dulness and prostration become more 

 profound, and debility and emaciation advance raj^idl^y. Unless there is 

 early improvement an infective pharyngitis or enteritis sets in, mani- 

 festly determined by the swallowing of virulent matters from the 

 mouth, and swelling, redness, and tenderness of the throat, or colics 

 and offensive black diarrhoea, hasten a fatal issue. Kachitis may be 

 a prominent complication, as it seems in some instances to be a pre- 

 disposing cause." 



Treatment. '' Isolate the healthy from the diseased, and apply dis- 

 infection to all exposed articles and places. Employ local antiseptics as 

 in other animals. Sulphuric or hydrochloric acids, in fifty times their 

 volume of water, or tincture of iron, chlorate of potash, or chloride of 

 ammonia, or borax have been used successfully. Bitters and aromatics 

 have also been strongly recommended." (Law's ''Veterinary Medicine," 

 Vol. II. p. 29.) 



MERCURIAL STOMATITIS. 



This form of stomatitis possesses certain distinguishing characters, 

 and develops after severe or trifling mercurial poisoning. 



Causation. Sheep sometimes suffer from mercurial poisoning as a 

 result of the use of baths containing corrosive sublimate or mercurial 

 ointment for acariasis or other cutaneous parasitism. Animals of the 

 bovine species seem predisposed to the disease as a consequence of their 

 special sensitiveness to the action of mercury, which is not shared by 

 other species. 



Mercurial poisoning may occur accidentally, but is usually the result 

 of some attempt at treatment. Any preparation containing mercury or 

 mercurial salts may produce it. In domesticated animals it most fre- 

 quently results from the action of the ordinary mercurial blister or 

 mercurial ointment of the pharmacopoeia, or again of calomel. Sometimes 

 it follows the use of mercurial salts in uterine douches, or in lotions used 

 to wash out large abscess cavities or wounds. 



The application of blisters or of antiparasitic dressings, or infriction 

 with grey ointment over extensive surfaces, favours this intoxication. It 

 may result from direct local intra-cutaneous absorption, from vapour given 

 off by mercurial applications obtaining entrance into the body through 

 th'e broncho-pulmonary and digestive tracts, from vapour given off by 

 metallic mercury (as in ships' holds), or from ingestion of mercurial 

 compounds licked off the skin, as certainly occurs. Hitherto in all dis- 

 cussions, even the most recent, on the mechanism of poisoning, partisans 

 of different views do not appear to have given sufficient attention to these 

 now clearly proved facts. The conclusion to be drawn is that in animals of 

 the bovine species mercurial preparations ought to be used with caution. 



