438 DISEASES OF CATTLE. 



ciition of softening and disinfecting agents to such vesicles upon the 

 teats as may have become ruptured by the hands of the milker. Car- 

 liolized vaseline or iodoform ointment will be found well suited to 

 this work. In more persistent cases it may be found desirable to use 

 a milking tube in order to pre\ent the repeated opening of the pus- 

 tules during the operation of milking. Washing the sores twice 

 daily with a weak solution of zinc chlorid (2i per cent solution) has 

 been found to assist in checking the inflammation and to cleanse and 

 heal the parts by its germicidal action. When the udder is hard, 

 swollen, and painful, support it by a bandage and foment frequently 

 with hot water. If calves are allowed to suckle the cows the pustules 

 become confluent, and the ulcerations may extend up into the teat, 

 causing garget and ruining the whole quarter of the udder. 



Ah young cows are most susceptible to variola, the milker must 

 exercise constant patience with these affected animals so long as their 

 teats or udders are sore and tender, else the patient may contract 

 vicious habits while resisting painful handling. The flow of milk is 

 usually lessened as soon as the fever becomes established, but is again 

 normal with the return of perfect health. 



The practice of thorough cleanliness in handling or milking 

 affected cattle may, in many instances, prevent the dissemination 

 of the trouble among the healthy portion of the herd, but even the 

 greatest care may prove insufficient to check the spread until it has 

 attacked each animal of the herd in turn. 



ACTINOMYCOSIS (LUMPY JAW). 



[I'ls. XXXIX-XH.] 



Actinomycosis, also known as lumpy jaw, big jaw, wooden tongue, 

 etc., is a chronic infectious disease characterized by the formation 

 of peculiar tumors in various regions of the body, more particularly 

 the head, and is due to the specific action of a certain fungi\s (acti- 

 nomyces). This fungus is an organism which occurs in the tissues 

 in the form of rosettes, and it has therefore been termed the " ray 

 fungus.'" The disease is not directly transmitted from one animal 

 to another, but it seems apparent that the fungus is conveyed into 

 the tissues by various feedstuff's through slight wounds of the 

 mucous membrane of the mouth, decayed teeth, or during the shed- 

 ding of milk teeth. The ray fungus is found in nature vegetated on 

 grasses, on the awns of barley, the spears of oats, and on other 

 grains. Quantities of the fungi have been found between the vege- 

 talde fibers of liarley which had penetrated the gums of cattle and on 

 the awns of grain embedded in the tongues of cows. 



Although actinomycotic tumors on cattle had been the object of 

 study for many years, it ^\ as not until lS77 that the constant presence 

 of actinomyces was pointed out by BolUnger, of Munich, and since 



