228 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



time, I visited the herds at Portland, Mel, which had been affected with 

 foot-and-mouth disease. The contrast was very striking. Although the 

 cattle in Maine had not showed the disease until the second week in 

 February, they were on the 16th of April in apparently good health. 

 There were no longer any sores in the mouths or on the feet. A week 

 later than this I found cattle in Illinois that sickened in December and 

 still had as marked mouth symptoms as could be found in any of the 

 Western herds. 



The feet sy7nptoms. — The interdigital spaces and the* coronet are the 

 seat of the eruption in foot-and-mouth disease. Xot only is there red- 

 ness, heat, and swelling in these parts, but there is formation of blisters, 

 loss of epithelium, and a secretion from the whole affected surface of 

 the skin. The appearance of the feet Avith sheep and cattle having this 

 disease is shown in Figs. 1, 2, and 3, Plate IX. Sometimes abscesses 

 form beneath the horn, from which the pus may burrow and cause the 

 loss of the hoofs, or even affect the ligaments and joints. But severe 

 complications in the region of the foot do not occur except from this 

 cause. With the cattle which I visited, the feet presented a very dif- 

 ferent appearance. Some of the limbs were separating, as a conse- 

 quence of dry gangrene, half way between the fetlock and hock joints, 

 with the skin of the foot still in perfect condition, though dead. In 

 others the separation occurred at the fetlock, and in many others at the 

 joints below, but not as a consequence of the burrowing of pus. In- 

 deed, very little pus was to be seen in any of the feet. It is not rare to 

 see the horn of one or both taes lost in foot-and-mouth disease, but it 

 would be remarkable for the whole toe, including the bone, to slough 

 off, as occurred so frequently here. I did not see a case where the hoof 

 was lost without a loss of the bone at the same time. The complete 

 death of the foot to the fetlock, or even higher, as occurred in all the 

 worst cases in the West, is altogether unheard of in foot-and-mouth dis- 

 ease. While there was redness, heat, and swelling above the line of 

 separation, I saw no appearance of blisters between the toes or around 

 the coronet. A large proportion of the affected animals were simply 

 lame, and had neither blisters nor sores about the feet. Finally, the 

 disease was generally confined to the hind feet, or, if it attacked a 

 forefoot, it was only after both hind ones were affected. Foot-and- 

 mouth disease has no such decided preference for the posterior extrem- 

 ities. 



The eruption on the adder. — In only one case that I have heard of in 

 the West was there any appearance of an eruption on the udder of the 

 affected cow. This was a cow belonging to Mr. Keith, the young calf of 

 which died, as was supposed from the effects of the disease contracted 

 from its mother. I am unable to account for the sores which eVTUently 

 existed on the udder of this cow, not having seen her until they were 

 nearly healed. There is also considerable doubt as to the cause of the 

 calf s death. Oertaiu it is that an eruption of blisters on the udder is 

 an extremely common occurrence in foot-and-mouth disease (Fig. 3, 

 Plate X). In the West, however, a considerable number of cows were 

 affected, and but one had any symptoms of this kind. 



Re vie wing these symptoms, we can see that the disease which I in- 

 vestigated had few if any characters in common with foot-and-mouth 

 disease. Among the whole number there was not a single animal Which 

 presented the typical characters of this plague. There did not appear 

 to be a single animal which presented even the typical mouth symptoms, 

 or the typical feet symptoms of that disease. The history, the eliarac 



