Foot-and-Mouth Disease. 
463 
evidence of a reliable kind in proof of the susceptibility of these 
animals to foot-and-mouth disease in this kingdom. 
Horses and dog-s, and probably other animals, are sometimes 
the subjects of febrile diseases in which abrasions of the buccal 
membrane occur ; and lesions not unlike those of foot-and- 
mouth disease have been seen in horses in consequence of irri- 
tation produced by vegetable hairs ; but the true aphthous 
disease has not been seen in this country, nor has it been found 
possible to produce it in horses, dogs, and rabbits ; and among- 
our birds only common fowls are known to have been attacked. 
Losses on account of foot-and-mouth disease may be classified 
under various heads according to the circumstances in which 
the diseased animals are placed. Store cattle suffer least ; under 
proper treatment a fatal result is very rare, and the loss of con- 
dition is not sufficient to retard the animal's growth to any 
serious extent. Fattening cattle are deteriorated in value to the 
amount of two to five pounds per head, according to various esti- 
mates ; milch cows experience a loss or considerable decrease of 
milk, but]the most serious losses are those among valuable breed- 
ing stock, including death of young animals from sucking the 
diseased milk, and the frequent occurrence of abortion among 
cows and ewes. The subject, however, of losses sustained has 
been amply discussed in the agricultural press, and it is not 
necessary to reiterate statements which are perfectly familiar to 
stock-owners, and of the truth of which they are capable of 
judging from actual experience. 
Teeatment op Foot-and-Mouth Disease. 
The course which has been pursued by the veterinary profession, 
in reference to the medical treatment of contagious diseases of 
stock, supplies a positive contradiction to that most remarkable 
maxim, " Honesty is the best policy." The true policy of the 
veterinary surgeon is to adopt the practice of the physician, and 
attempt to cure disease, instead of to get rid of it, by the expe- 
ditious method of killing the patient. Veterinary surgeons might 
have gained the credit of curing all the animals which recovered 
from disease, instead of incurring the charge which they have 
themselves invited, of being incapable of dealing with maladies 
which are no more malignant than those which the practitioner 
of human medicine successfully attacks. Cholera, typhus, and 
small-pox are, it is alleged, as deadly as any form of cattle-plague, 
and yet no physician thinks of the stamping-out system in refer- 
ence to them ; on the contrary, all the experience of the past, and 
all the modern resources of science, are brought forward for their 
amelioration ; while, in respect of the treatment of animal plagues. 
