2 BULLETIN 662, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



months later. Jaeoulet referred to the erosive stomatitis of inde- 

 terminate nature affecting horses coming from America for the 

 French Army. He indicated that some of the veterinarians coming 

 to the army depot were acquainted with this disease, calling it 

 stomatitis of horses and attributing it to the fact that the new horses 

 frequently licked the freshly whitewashed walls near them. The 

 question of etiology was at once referred to the Pasteur Institute, but 

 at that time attempts to cany the disease from horse to horse proved 

 unsuccessful. The opinion was thereupon advanced that defective 

 feed probably of a mycotic nature was responsible, especially since 

 moldiness was quite extensive in American baled hay brought over 

 with the horses. 



In the issue of the above-named French journal dated February 

 29, 1916, Vigel records having observed the disease in question in a 

 large number of American animals. On the basis of his observations 

 he believed that the cause of vesicular stomatitis is a contagion and 

 should not be looked for in the poor quality of hay, as the disease 

 spread to French horses on the surrounding farms and these animals 

 had never eaten American hay. At least one cow became similarly 

 affected. Three bacteriologists of the French Army took samples of 

 blood and vesicular fluid from infected horses, but their results were 

 likewise negative. However, Vigel proved quite clearly that the 

 disease is contagious and transmissible through direct inoculation. 

 More, recently, May 15, 1917, Panisset reports in the Revue Gen6rale 

 de Medecine Veterinaire that vesicular stomatitis had gained con- 

 siderable ground during the previous few months, but not sufficient 

 to cause any alarm. Particularly those depots that received horses 

 coming from the first infected remount stations have paid heavy 

 tribute to the affection. Although known and described in France 

 before the present War, it had been observed only occasionally and its 

 present frequency there is considered by Panisset to be due to 

 importations of infected American horses for military purposes. 



Notwithstanding that the disease primarily affects horses and 

 mules, it may spread to cattle under appropriate conditions, but 

 thus far it has not been observed under natural conditions among 

 hogs and sheep. Evidently the necessary conditions for its spread 

 from horses to cattle obtained in Nebraska, as a shipment of cattle 

 from that locality to the Kansas City Stock Yards in the fall of 1916 

 was found infected. Much excitement was occasioned thereb} T , as 

 the disease was quite suggestive of foot-and-mouth disease. How- 

 ever, a series of careful experiments was at once begun, from which 

 the true nature of the disease was ascertained and the diagnosis of 

 vesicular stomatitis made. 



Among other more important forms of stomatitis may be men- 

 tioned mycotic stomatitis of cattle, which results from eating feed 



