INFECTIOUS DISEASES OF CATTLE. 387 



Medicinal treatment. — In some mild attacks of foot-and-mouth 

 disease great benefit may be derived from a judicious attempt to 

 relieve the symptoms and thus assist nature in overcoming the dis- 

 ease, but the great danger attached to the presence of an infectious 

 disease in any noninfected locality for twelve to twenty days, while 

 the disease is running its course, must appeal to the sanitarian and 

 prevent indiscriminate medicinal treatment. 



However, beneficial results have been obtained by the local applica- 

 tion of disinfecting and astringent lotions. A teaspoonf ul of alum, 

 chlorate of potash, boi-acic acid, or one-half teaspoonf ul of the tinc- 

 ture of aloes and myrrh placed in the mouth has proved efficacious. 

 The infected animals may be made to stand from five to ten minutes 

 in a shallow trough containing medicinal agents such as a l-to-1,000 

 solution of bichlorid of mercury or a 3 per cent carbolic acid or creo- 

 lin solution. Where the teats and Udder are affected the application 

 of carbolized vaseline, camphor ointment, or borated glycerin has 

 given excellent results. If the symptoms of heart weakness are 

 manifest, give digitalis, camphor, or alcohol, while excessive fever 

 may be reduced with phenacetin. 



The complications that may follow the disease are usually the result 

 of contaminating bacteria, and it is therefore desirable to have the 

 animals and their surroundings kept in as cleanly a condition as pos- 

 sible. The cattle should be fed on soft meal or grain and given a 

 plentiful supply of clean water. 



SEPTICEMIA AND PYEMIA. 



These two names are applied to diseased conditions which are so 

 nearly alike in their symptoms that it is sometimes difficult to distin- 

 guish the one from the other. Indeed, the name pyosepticemia, or 

 septicopyemia, is often applied where it is impossible to make a dis- 

 tinction between septicemia and pyemia or where each is equally 

 responsible for the diseased condition. The name septicemia is 

 derived from two Greek words meaning "poison" and "blood,"' and 

 signifies that the germ lives in the blood, hence the use of the term 

 "blood poisoning " for this disease. Pyemia is likewise derived from 

 two Greek words, meaning "pus" and "blood," and is that form of 

 septicemia caused by pus-producing organisms and characterized by 

 secondary abscesses. 



Causes. — Neither of these diseases is brought about, strictly speak- 

 ing, by any specific organism, hence neither can be looked upon as a • 

 specific disease. . The organisms most f requently found in cases of 

 septicemia are, on the whole, the same as those of pyemia, and may 

 be either pus cocci, the bacillus coli, or other pus-producing organ- 

 isms. These organisms are often found as secondary invaders in 

 other diseases, such as advanced cases of tuberculosis, in which 

 cases they are responsible for the formation of pus. 



Aside from the causative organism, or, in other words, the active 



