ULCERATIVE STOMATITIS IN SHEEP. 125 



arrests the growth of the parasite, whether in artificial cultures or in the 

 mouth. The powder may be rubbed into the sores, or it may be mixed 

 with . . . molasses and used as an electuary. As substitutes boric 

 acid, salol, thymol, potash chlorate, or Condy's fluid may be used." 

 (Law's "Veterinary Medicine," Vol. 11. p. 36.) 



VLCBRATIVB STOMATITIS IN SHEEP. 



The name of ulcerative stomatitis of sheep has been given to a disease 

 which is characterised by the appearance of a pultaceous deposit on the 

 surface of the buccal mucous membrane and later by the development of 

 ulcerations and of vegetative growths. 



Causation. The cause is imperfectly understood. In certain years 

 the disease appears to attack lambs at the time of weaning, but it may 

 also affect flocks of animals as old as fifteen or eighteen months, two 

 years, or even more. It is contagious, and may extend to one-half or two- 

 thirds of the entire number in the flock. Pull-grown and old animals 

 appear to be immune. 



It was formerly thought, a priori, and in consequence of the character 

 of the buccal deposit, that the disease was identical with thrush, and that 

 the lesions were produced by Oidium albicans. Neumann in 1885 declared, 

 however, that he could not find the fungus in question in scrapings from 

 the mucous membrane. 



Moussu had similar negative results in the experiments he made 

 during 1894, when he examined both young and old animals belong- 

 ing to flocks in the departments of Berry and of La Brie. 



In addition it has been suggested that- the disease affects badly cared- 

 for and badly fed lambs, and subjects suffering from "watery cachexia." 

 This seems correct in many cases, and Moussu has seen ulcerative 

 stomatitis decimate flocks which had previously been attacked with 

 intestinal helminthiasis and verminous broncho-pneumonia ; but, on the 

 other hand, in the environs of Melun he saw it in animals which had 

 previously been quite free of disease and were kept under perfect hygienic 

 conditions. 



^ The conditions in which animals are reared, the use of common drink- 

 ing ponds, and the method of supj)lying flocks with food, are the chief 

 causes of the distribution of the disease. 



Symptoms. The symjjtoms consist in loss of ajjpetite, or rather in 

 difficulty in grasping and masticating food, wasting, a certain degree of 

 dulness, and salivation. Somewhat later one often sees apj^ear on the 

 free margin of the upper and lower lij^s an eruption of small vesico- 

 pustules, which quickly become covered with yellowish-brown crusts and 

 bleed on the slightest touch. The lips swell, become sensitive and j)ain- 

 ful, so that examination of the cavity of the mouth should be made with 



