118 Annual Report of the Royal Veterinary College. 
During July, August, and September no results were observed from 
contact with the diseased sheep, nor from exposure to the wet land. 
On September 17, a wether and lamb from the wet meadow, 
which had remained sound from J une 22, were sent to Harrow and 
put with diseased sheep on September 1 9, and as previously stated, 
both became diseased in twenty and twenty-two days respectively 
after exposure to infection. 
On October 6 one of the sound sheep, which had been kept with 
a diseased sheep since June 21, in a pen with concrete floor, had 
foot-rot, and in another similar pen a Cotswold lamb kept with a 
diseased lamb for the same time had foot-rot. The Cotswold wether 
and lamb which had been on the pastures with diseased sheep since 
June 22 were also affected on October 6. The Cotswold sheep which 
were in the water meadow remained free from disease up to the end 
of the year. 
From these experiments the following conclusions may be drawn, 
and, at least for the time being, accepted : — 
1 . After a long period of exposure, foot-rot is communicable from 
diseased to healthy sheep by association on good dry pasture 
land, or in pens with hard floors kept clean. The period of 
exposure was three months in the pens and ten weeks on 
the dry pasture. 
2. Sheep from a district in which foot-rot was unknown did not 
suffer from six months’ exposure in a wet meadow. But 
the same sheep readily took the disease after being placed 
for a fortnight on a pasture with diseased sheep. 
3. Sheep which were kept for several months on moist clay land, 
without showing any sign of foot-rot, took the disease in 
seven days when they were penned on the opposite side of 
the same meadow on a spot from which sheep affected with 
foot-rot had grazed for some weeks, but had been moved there- 
from two days before the sound sheep were placed there. 
4. Infection is most probably due to the entrance of the matter 
from a diseased foot into the pores of the skin ; and the 
long period which elapses in many cases in diy weather 
before disease is developed is due to the condition of the 
skin preventing the entrance of the matter into the follicles. 
5. When all the conditions are favourable, and the skin is re- 
laxed, and the openings of the follicles are free, the disease 
may appear in a few days after exposure to infection. 
One very important question arises out of tlie results of the 
experiments, as to the state of the system of the affected animals ; 
symptoms of fever are apparent during the course of the disease, as 
a distinct rise in the internal temperature proves ; further, it is 
noticeable that tlie local affection often subsides in one foot, and 
becomes evident in another, and it is also a fact that a certain time 
elapses after inoculation or exposure in any manner to infection 
before the disease is declared. Expei’iments to test this and other 
doubtful points will be commenced at once. 
