304 INFECTIVE DISEASES. 



But Jenner's experience of this disease was not limited to cases 

 in which the eruption occurred in the heel. 



He mentions a case in which 



" An extensive inflammation of the erysipelatous kind appeared 

 without any cause upon the upper part of the thigh of a sucking- 

 colt. The inflammation continued several weeks, and at length 

 terminated in the formation of three or four small abscesses." Those 

 who dressed the colt also milked the cows on the farm, and communi- 

 cated the disease to them. 



Subsequently, Jenner gave a more comprehensive description of 

 this disease. 



"The skin of the horse' is subject to an eruptive disease of a 

 vesicular character, which vesicle contains a limpid fluid, showing 

 itself more commonly in the heels. The legs first become cedematous, 

 and then fissures are observed. The skin contiguous to these fissures, 

 when accurately examined, is seen studded with small vesicles sur- 

 rounded by an areola. These vesicles contain the specific fluid. It 

 is the ill- management of the horse in the stable that occasions the 

 malady to appear more frequently in the heel than in other parts. 

 I have detected it connected with a sore on the neck of the horse, 

 and on the thigh of a colt." 



Mr. Moore, of Chalford Hill, described a case in 1797, and re- 

 garded the disease as virulent grease. His horse was attacked with 

 what was supposed to be ordinary " grease." A cow was subse- 

 quently infected, and the disease communicated to the servant, who 

 had " eruptions on his hands, face, and many other parts of the 

 body, the pustules appearing large, and not much unlike the small- 

 pox, for which he had been inoculated a year and a half before, and 

 had then a very heavy burden." 



In 1798, Mr. Fewster, of Thornbury, met with a case of this 

 equine malady, and wrote a very full account to Jenner of its 

 transmission to the human subject. 



" William Morris, aged thirty-two, servant to Mr. Cox of 

 Almonsbury in this county, applied to me the 2nd of April, 1798. 

 He told me that four days before he found a stiffness and swelling 

 in both his hands, which were so painful it was with difficulty he 

 continued his work ; that he had been seized with pain in his head, 

 small of the back, and limbs, and with frequent chilly fits succeeded 

 by fever. On examination I found him still affected with these 

 symptoms, and there was great prostration of strength. Many 

 parts of his hands on the inside were chapped, and on the middle 

 joint of the thumb of the right hand there was a small phagedaenic 



