793 
ARE HARES AND RABBITS THE SUBJECTS OF 
THE VESICULAR EPIZOOTIC— MOUTH AND 
FOOT DISEASE? 
By Alex. E. Macgillivray, Veterinary Surgeon, Banff. 
So much has already been written in reference to this dis- 
ease, and the subject has become so threadbare, that any 
further communication on it may seem somewhat superfluous. 
Be this as it may, however, I am inclined to think that what 
I am about to report will be new, if not interesting, to most 
readers of the Veterinarian. 
Some seven or eight years ago a report went abroad in 
these northern parts that hares, rabbits, deer, and other ani- 
mals commonly called game were, during their migrations 
from field to field and farm to farm, the means of spreading 
both this disease and pleuro-pneumonia ; and not only so, 
but the fabricators of these reports would have it that the 
animals here mentioned were also the subjects of these diseases ! 
I have now before me an essay, of some sixteen octavo 
pages, on f The Disease called Murrain,’ published by an 
experienced veterinary surgeon in 1865. The writer of this 
essay tells us that he has “ credible testimony that game — 
roes, hares, rabbits, &c. — are often the means of conveying 
infectious diseases such as pleuro-pneumonia, murrain, &c., 
from one stock to another. It is also said these animals are 
themselves the subjects of these affections.” Further, the 
same writer goes on to say that “ these animals being grami- 
nivorous — and in relation to their habits and aliment the 
same as cattle, sheep, &c. — he does not see any reason why 
they should be exempted from attacks of the same contagious 
diseases.” Quite recently these stories about hares, rabbits, 
and dogs conveying contagious matter, on their bodies and in 
their systems, have been revived and become exceedingly rife, 
but with what veracity or foundation we shall see. 
On the 20th of September last a farmer in this district 
called on me to say that, a day or two previously, his brother 
had given chase to a hare in a field on my informant’s farm, 
and, having somewhat unexpectedly overtaken and secured 
the hare, he found that “ poor pussy” was in the last stages of 
“foot and mouth disease!” the mouth, he said, one mass of 
blisters, and the four feet blistered and swollen out of all shape ! 
Considering the rumours afloat, and also the want of any 
reliable information on this subject, I asked him to send me 
