BUKEAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



227 



Companion of symptoms. — The symptoms of foot-and-mouth disease 

 are constitutional and local. The constitutional symptoms are loss of 

 appetite, elevation of temperature, and other signs common to fevers. 

 The local symptoms consist in an eruption of blisters in the mouth, be- 

 tween the toes, about the coronet, and on the udder and teats. In order 

 to understand the difference in symptoms between the recent disease in 

 the AVestern States and foot-and-mouth disease, it is necessary to ex- 

 amine each of those points separately. 



The constitutional symptoms. — In foot-and-mouth disease there is usu- 

 ally a very marked increase of temperature, reaching - from 104° to 107°. 

 At Neosho Falls the temperature, as a rule, did not exceed what might 

 reasonably be expected in health. Some of the perfectly healthy year 

 lings had a temperature of 103°, while that of most of the sick ones was 

 below this point. One of the steers in the early stages of disease at 

 Keith's showed 104.4° on March 0, which was about the highest point 

 reached by any. In foot-and-mouth disease there is loss of appetite and 

 difficulty of swallowing, but here the universal testimony was that the 

 appetite had remained good throughout and there was no trouble in 

 mastication or swallowing. In Illinois there were marked symptoms of 

 digestive disturbance, and the disease Avas ushered in by diarrhea. 



The mouth symptoms. — In foot-and-mouth disease there is an eruption 

 of blisters on the mucous membranes of the lips, gums, tongue, and 

 palate, which are numerous and painful. Often they unite with each 

 other and form large patches, from which the covering becomes detached, 

 leaving ulcerous patches of a bright red color aud of great sensitiveness. 

 It is almost impossible for animals in this condition to eat hay or other 

 dry food, and it is necessary to support them with gruel. Such animals 

 stand, making a peculiar and rather loud smacking noise with the lips 

 and tongue, grinding the teeth and slavering profusely. In Kansas the 

 mouth symptoms were much less severe than this, but two or thre* 

 animals were reported to have had any salivation or any difficulty in 

 eating hay. Some of the mouths presented erosions, which were mostly 

 small, very superficial, and without any appearance of ulceration. I did 

 not see a single blister, but a few of these were reported by those who 

 visited the herds at an earlier date. The lesions which I saw in the 

 mouths seemed to be due rather to a softening of the mucous membrane 

 than to vesication ; and I was assured that the appearances did not 

 differ materially at the time of my visit from what they were when the 

 veterinarians first saw them. In one or two animals there were large 

 patches of thickened mucous membrane of a yellowish color, hard and 

 difficult to detach. Healthy herds in the vicinity were visited, and in 

 the mouths of these cattle were found decolorations and erosions very 

 similar to, though less extensive than, those seen in the sick ones. In 

 Missouri some of the cattle had the mouths involved to a greater degree 

 than any I saw in Kansas, but others with equally bad feet had per- 

 fectly sound mouths. Here I saw pieces of mucous membrane becom- 

 ing detached, but no blisters. Figures 1 and 2, Plate X, show the 

 highly inflamed condition of the ulcers in the real foot-and-mouth dis- 

 ease. 



The cattle in Illinois still had erosions in their mouths as late as April 

 24, which were identical in appearance with those I saw in Kansas. The 

 steer which lirst came down with the disease on the Faunce farm, and 

 which had consequently been affected about four months, showed these 

 about as plainly as any animals I saw in Kansas. In foot-and-mouth dis- 

 ease the eruption disappears in from two to three weeks, and the animal 

 is convalescent. Before proceeding to Kansas and Illinois the second 



