Foot and Mouth Disease. 367 



.■same is true of the mouth when the infected milk or other dairy 

 products are consumed. The buUse on the buccal mucosa are 

 generally confluent, and often extend to the fauces and pharynx, 

 jrendering speech difficult and swallowing painful, and leaving ex- 

 tensive and painful sores which, however, soon heal up. In 

 women the bullae have been seen around the congested nipples, 

 and in exceptional cases they have been generally diffused over 

 1;he body. 



In cases due to drinking the milk, the early febrile symptoms 

 are liable to be accompanied or followed by nausea, anorexia, ab- 

 dominal pain and diarrhoea, and still later by the cutaneous and 

 buccal eruption. 



The duration of the disease is from 10 to 15 days and as a rule 

 jio permanent scars are left on the skin or mucous membranes. 



The diagnosis is assisted by the knowledge of the prevalence 

 •of the disease in herds in the district, and that the patient has 

 handled the diseased animals, or drunk their milk, or eaten their 

 butter or cheese products. The predilection of the eruption for 

 the fingers, the roots of the nails and the mouth is very significant. 

 'The^disease follows an acute course and convalescence is complete 

 in ten or fifteen days, which serves to differentiate it from most 

 .skin eruptions. From variola which pursues an equally rapid 

 -course it is distinguished by the absence of the primary nodular 

 swelling, and of the septa or pillars that divide the mature pock 

 into independent chambers. 



Prophylactics. The best prevention to man is to exclude the 

 -disease from the country and its herds as is now the case in the 

 United States. When the disease does exist in herds the attend- 

 ants should cauterize any sores on the hands, and wash the hands 

 -with an antiseptic, such as a 10 per cent, carbolic acid solution, 

 -after handling the diseased. The milk and its manufactured 

 products — butter and cheese— should be withheld from consump- 

 tion until after the herd has recovered. Infection can be obvi- 

 .ated by boiling the milk. 



Treatme7it. The disease follows a rapid course and is self- 

 limiting, and usually benign so that active treatment is not 

 urgently demanded. The local lesions are best met by non-pois- 

 onous antiseptics, such as : borax in powder or strong solution ; 

 JDoricacid (4:100) ; sodium hyposulphite (3^ oz. i qt.) ; chlorate 



