PRINCIPLES OF VETERINARY SURGERY 501 



BOVINE ACTINOMYCOSIS. 



The disease may be enzootic. Steinon found it raging 

 on one farm. Preusse observed it in the low districts of 

 Prussia after floods lasting two months. Twenty per cent 

 of the cattle fed with the hay gathered in the inundated 

 regions contracted the disease, and all of the various locali- 

 zations were observed. Villemin also saw the disease attack 

 a .number of animals in a single cow-house. The problem 

 here is not that of contagion, as has been claimed by some 

 writers. The disease takes the enzootic form because the 

 cattle attacked were exposed to the same source of infection. 

 If the fodder of a district is infected with the actinomyces all 

 of the animals that consume it are liable to contract the dis- 

 ease. It is therefore not a question of transmission from ani- 

 mal to animal. 



SYMPTOMS. — As far back as 1884 Bang distinguished 

 four clinical forms of actinomycosis : 



1st. Actinomycosis of the jaws. 



2nd. Actinomycosis of the tongue. 



3rd. Actinomycosis of the soft structures of the face 



and of the neck. 

 4th. Actinomycosis of the pharynx. 

 Genei-ally speaking the lesions caused by the ray-fungus 

 are the same. The peculiar physiognomy of the different 

 forms is due to the region in which the disease develops. The 

 parasite will construct tumors in any tissue. 



Actinomycosis of the Jaws. — These localizations were 

 known to the old veterinarians under the names of "osteo- 

 sarcoma," "wen," "cancer of the cheek," etc. It is the most 

 common kind encountered in France. It is usually located 

 on the inferior maxillaiy; sometimes, but more rarely, on 

 the superior. 



Generally, the commencement of the tumor escapes no- 



