

SMALL-POX. 243 



CHAPTER XV. 



SMALL-POX ; MANGE ; WARTS ; CANCER ; FUNGUS H^EMATODES ; 



SORE FEET. 



SMALL-POX. 



IN 1809, there was observed, at the Royal Veterinary School at Lyons, 

 an eruptive malady among the dogs, to which they gave the name of 

 small-pox. It appeared to be propagated from dog to dog by contagion. 

 It was not difficult of cure ; and it quickly disappeared when no other 

 remedies were employed than mild aperients arid diaphoretics. A sheep 

 was inoculated from one of these dogs. There was a slight eruption of 

 pustules formed on the place of inoculation, but nowhere else ; nor was 

 there the least fever. 



At another time, also, at the school at Lyons, a sheep died of the 

 regular sheep-pox. A part of the skin was fastened, during four-and- 

 twenty hours, on a healthy sheep, and the other part of it on a dog, both 

 of them being in apparent good health. No effect was produced on the 

 dog, but the sheep died of confluent sheep-pox. 



The essential symptoms of small-pox in dogs succeed each other in the 

 following order : the skin of the belly, the groin, and the inside of the 

 fore arm becomes of a redder colour than in its natural state, and sprinkled 

 with small red spots irregularly rounded. They are sometimes isolated, 

 sometimes clustered together. The near approach of this eruption is 

 announced by an increase of fever. 



On the second day, the spots are larger, and the integument is slightly 

 tumefied at the centre of each. 



On the third day, the spots are generally enlarged, and the skin is still 

 more prominent at the centre. 



On the fourth day, the summit of the tumour is yet more prominent. 

 Towards the end of that day, the redness of the centre begins to assume a 

 somewhat gray colour. On the following days, the pustules take on their 

 peculiar characteristic appearance, and cannot be confounded with any 

 other eruption. On the summit is a white circular point, corresponding 

 with a certain quantity of nearly transparent fluid which itcontains, and 

 covered by a thin and transparent pellicle. This fluid becomes less and 

 [ess transparent, until it acquires the colour and consistence of pus. The 

 pustule, during its serous state, is of a rounded form. It is flattened 

 when the fluid acquires a purulent character, and even slightly depressed 

 nowards the close of the period of suppuration, and when that of desicca- 

 tion is about to commence, which ordinarily happens towards the ninth 

 or tenth day of the eruption. The desiccation and the desquamation 

 occupy an exceedingly variable length of time; and so, indeed, do all the 

 different periods of the disease. What is the least inconstant, is the dura- 

 tion of the serous eruption, which is about fo jir days, if it has been dis- 



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