Foot-and- Mouth Disease. 
471 
lotion should be gently poured into the mouth, and then, after 
the head has been for a moment slightly elevated, to cause the 
fluid to run to the back of the mouth, it may be permitted to 
flow out again. Should the whole quantity, however, be in- 
advertently swallowed, no harm will arise. 
Tannic acid coagulates the albuminous material of the exuda- 
tion, and thus furnishes a protective covering of some tenacity, 
while it lessens irritation by causing the minute vessels which 
are charged with blood to contract, thus lessening the pressure 
on the nerve-fibres. 
The third indication — that is, the support of the system under 
the debilitating effects of the disease — as to be carried out prin- 
cipally by careful attention to the diet. When the mouth is 
sore the animal is disinclined to use the tongue or lips to collect 
its food, therefore it is necessary to perform this preparatory 
process for it. Cattle at pasture require that the grass be cut 
and placed in little hillocks near them. Roots must be sliced 
into long thin pieces, which may be grasped without difficulty 
between the lips. Hay will usually be taken readily ; portions 
of oil-cake, if introduced into the side of the mouth by the 
fingers, and placed within reach of the back teeth, will be 
masticated freely. Pulped roots, and mashes containing a fair 
proportion of meal, may also be offered by way of varying the 
•diet. Oil-cake, softened and mixed with water to form a gruel, 
will be of great value when an animal's mouth is so sore that it 
is only capable of sucking in such bland and liquid food. Tonic 
medicine will not be necessary in ordinary cases, careful nursing 
will be sufficient ; but it must be remembered that, in the absence 
of attention to the diet, the sick animal's chances of recovery are 
reduced to a minimum. 
This point was brought out very prominently during the in- 
quiry which has been already referred to in 1869 in Somerset. 
In the district which extends for many miles round Glastonbury, 
the homesteads are small, and the pastures extensive ; from the 
Tor the prospect extends as far as the eye can reach in all 
directions — one vast plain of feeding ground. It may be 
imagined how quickly the disease would spread among hundreds 
of cattle feeding on these pastures, and only separated by wire 
fences or narrow dykes ; but the severe form which the affection 
assumed was mainly due to the want of facilities for supplying 
the numerous herds with sufficient aliment at a time when the 
system required a liberal allowance of restoratives ; the sick 
beasts could not crop the herbage on account of the soreness of 
their mouths, and presumably owing to the extensive surface 
over which the cattle were spread, it was found impossible 
to supply them with food artificially prepared, or even to cut 
