2 BULLETIN 662, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
He indicated that some of the veterinarians coming to the army depot 
were acquainted with this disease, calling it stomatitis of horses and 
attributing it to the fact that the new horses frequently licked the 
freshly whitewashed walls near them. The question of etiology was 
at once referred to the Pasteur Institute, but at that time attempts 
to carry the disease from horse to horse proved unsuccessful. The 
opinion was thereupon advanced that defective feed probably of a 
mycotic nature was responsible, especially since moldiness was quite 
extensive in American baled hay brought over with the horses. 
In the issue of the above-named French journal dated February 
29, 1916, Vigel records having observed the disease in question in a 
large number of American animals. On the basis of his observations 
he believed that the cause of vesicular stomatitis is a contagion and 
should not be looked for in the poor quality of hay, as the disease 
spread to French horses on the surrounding farms and these animals 
had never eaten American hay. At least one cow became similarly 
affected. Three bacteriologists of the French Army took samples of 
blood and vesicular fluid from infected horses, but their results were 
likewise negative. However, Vigel proved quite clearly that the 
disease is contagious and transmissible through direct inoculation. 
More recently, May 15, 1917, Panisset reports in the Revue Générale 
de Médecine Vétérinaire that vesicular stomatitis had gained con- 
siderable ground during the previous few months, but not sufficient 
to cause any alarm. Particularly those depots that received horses 
coming from the first infected remount stations have paid heavy 
tribute to the affection. Although known and described in France 
before the World War, it had been observed only occasionally, and 
its frequency there in 1917 was considered by Panisset to be due to 
importations of infected American horses for military purposes. 
Notwithstanding that the disease primarily affects horses and 
mules, it may spread to cattle under appropriate conditions, but 
thus far it has not been observed under natural conditions among 
hogs and sheep. Evidently the necessary conditions for its spread 
from horses to cattle existed in Nebraska, as a shipment of cattle 
from that locality to the Kansas City Stock Yards in the fall of 1916 
was found infected. Much excitement was occasioned thereby, as 
the disease was quite suggestive of foot-and-mouth disease. How- 
ever, a series of careful experiments was at once begun, from which 
the true nature of the disease was ascertained and the diagnosis of 
vesicular stomatitis made. 
Among other more important forms of stomatitis may be men- 
tioned mycotic stomatitis of cattle, which results from eating feed 
containing irritating fungi; necrotic stomatitis, especially affecting 
calves and pigs, which is caused by infection with the necrosis bacil- 
lus; stomatitis contagiosa, or foot-and-mouth disease, which is one 
of the most highly infectious diseases of livestock and caused by a 
filterable virus; and pustular stomatitis, which is less contagious in 
character than the former and confined solely to the equine. 
Concerning vesicular stomatitis, the name not only indicates the 
location of the lesions in the mouth but also suggests that the 
vesicles or blisters are characteristic features, being observed at the 
beginning of the disease. Other names which have been applied to 
this affection are sporadic aphthe, stomatitis vesiculosa, stomatitis 
