DISEASES OP THE OX AND SHEEP. 197 



udder of the mother does not seem to be affected. To the cow 

 herself the same acid should also be administered. When the 

 udder is greatly inflamed, the affected parts should be thoroughly 

 fomented with hot water for an hour or two at least once daily, 

 and the sore parts should be cleaned and dressed regularly with 

 ointment of salicylic acid. If there is sloughing of an extensive 

 kind, either on the feet or elsewhere, stronger antiseptic appli- 

 cations may be used. One part of carbolic acid to nine parts of 

 either olive oil or glycerine, or one part of carbolic acid and one 

 of oil of eucalyptus to 12 parts of either olive oil or glycerine, 

 will be found exceedingly efficacious. 



In addition to the above disease, which may be termed true 

 foot-and-mouth disease, we may point out that there is a particular 

 kind of enzootic disease of sheep affecting especially the feet, but 

 also the mouth, which, although resembling true foot-and-mouth 

 ,, disease in many points, is yet quite distinct from it. According 

 to the late Mr. D. Gresswell, who had a very wide experience of 

 the diseases of sheep, and also to Mr. J. B. Gresswell, this 

 enzootic disease, which affects especially the feet but also the 

 mouths of sheep and lambs, causing more particularly great loss 

 among the lambs, is very liable to be mistaken for foot-and-mouth 

 disease. Many of the older shepherds and veterinary practitioners 

 were very well acquainted with this malady long before foot-and- 

 mouth disease was imported into this country about the year 

 1839. In many cases it seems to be due to the mechanical irri- 

 tation of dirt and clay leading to erythema in the region of the 

 coronets, villitis, and consequent separation of horn from the 

 coronet, also to erythema on the lips and nose. 



The malady occurs especially in wet and frosty weather. 

 It is due to the continued effects of moisture, dirt, frost, 

 varied with heat (arising from putrefaction), and often breaks out 

 on ill-drained, clayey turnip-land, and also on wet grass-land, 

 though to a far less extent and in a much milder form. In- 

 ■deed, the piteous spectacle may very frequently be seen of sheep 

 paddling about in fields of which the soil is simply one mass 

 of sludge and decaying vegetable material. The dirt gets 

 wedged between the claws, and on the lips, and there it freezes, 

 producing not only irritation, but also what is very important, 

 namely, undue expansion of the claws, and the inevitable 

 .result soon shows itself. Formerly the complaint of which 



