Lamenesses o f Sheep and Lamhs. 
409 
Indeed in the milder, whicli are also fortunately the commoner 
cases, lameness from the interdigital vesicles is often the only 
symptom which can be detected, and recovery supervenes in six 
or eight days. In the more serious cases the vesicles burst, and 
a raw surface is exposed. From the application of dirt, or from 
an unhealthy state of system, ulcers eat into the exposed surface, 
giving rise to an unhealthy noisome discharge. These untoward 
results most commonly occur among heavy sheep, or those that 
have been driven long distances, or have either been neglected or 
subjected to bad treatment. 
The symptoms of this variety of foot-rot, Avhen attentively 
considered, clearly indicate the nature of the disease. It is a 
specific or peculiar inflammation of the mucous membranes and 
skin, accompanied by the eruption of vesicles, which in sheep 
commonly present themselves in the interdigital space. It 
belongs to the exanthemata, or eruptive fevers, and hence ex- 
hibits many characters in common with measles, scarlatina, 
small-pox, and other diseases of that class. Like them it is 
ushered in by fever, is attended by eruption, seklom occui's more 
than once in a life-time, is contagious, and runs a definite course 
with which medical treatment cannot safely interfere. These, be it 
observed, are points which distinguish it from ordinary foot-rot 
and entitle it to be classed as a distinct and separate disease. 
Contagion is undoubtedly the most common and active cause 
of murrain. Sheep are frequently attacked from travelling along 
a road over which an infected stock has recently passed, or from 
being pastured where such a flock had previously grazed. They 
will take it from cattle, and even from pigs, as well as from 
animals of their own kind. Again, in further evidence of its 
contagious character, it spreads slowly and gradually, often 
following the route of travelling droves. It appears frequently 
after fairs, and on the introduction of recent purchases, which 
are themselves the first victims. It rarely affects a few indivi- 
duals, without runriing through the whole flock, and those which 
happen to be brought into closest proximity with the unsound 
animals first show symptoms of the malady. It is frequently 
communicated by the mother to her lamb, which by sucking the 
affected teats becomes much inconvenienced by the vesicles in 
its mouth. It has even been noticed with all its symptoms pro- 
minently developed in the newly-dropped lamb — a proof alike 
of its contagiousness and its constitutional nature. Althouirh 
chiefly indicated by local symptoms, it is, to use a common 
phrase, a " blood disease." Unlike non-contagious maladies, it 
affects sheep of all kinds and under all varieties of management. 
It equally prevails on hill and meadow lands, in wet and dry 
pastures, amongst young and old sheep. 
