794 FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE IN HARES AND RABBITS. 
the hare in order that I might judge for myself as to the 
truth of this and other stories of a like nature which have of 
late figured rather largely in our public prints. Next day, 
instead of the whole hare, only a hind leg came to hand, the 
other three legs and head having been kept back, as they had 
been so much eaten or destroyed in the interim by some 
vermin as to be rendered useless for any investigation. 
The foot of the leg sent was immensely enlarged, dark- 
coloured, and minus the usual hairy covering or fur from the 
end of the metatarsals to the root of the claws ; but sur- 
rounding the insertion of each claw there still remained a 
small ruff of hair. The swollen foot, however, was quite 
firm, with the exception of some bulging and fluctuating 
points here and there, similar to the pointing of small ab- 
scesses. These were said to be the blisters or vesicles of 
the 4t foot and mouth ” disease. A very cursory examination 
showed that they bore very little likeness to the vesicles of 
the aphthous epizootic ; and I shall here endeavour to show 
that difference there was much, while resemblance there was 
none. 
The vesicles in foot and mouth disease present at first a 
whitish appearance, and as the disease approaches its height 
they mostly assume a reddish-yellow or rusty colour. In the 
diseased hare’s foot, however, the soft bulging points or so- 
called blisters were almost black in colour. When the vesicles 
of vesicular murrain break of themselves or are intentionally 
ruptured, a clear light-coloured fluid escapes in the early 
stages, which fluid becomes reddish-yellow as the disease 
advances to maturity ; and further, in either case, the burst- 
ing or rupture of the vesicles exposes a raw, ulcerated, and 
intensely red surface. Nothing at all like this could I 
discover about the hare’s foot ; for, on opening one of the 
largest of the bulging points, some fairly-thick pus escaped 
from a pipe or sinus extending down to the bone. There 
were no less than seven of these points, varying from a quarter 
to half an inch in diameter, each with its accompanying sinus 
coming from the bone, or perhaps rather leading to it, as 
I failed to discover anything wrong with any of the phalan- 
geal bones. 
The other three feet, and also the external parts of the 
mouth and nostrils of the animal, were said to be swollen and 
denuded of hair to a similar extent to the one described. On 
my showing the foot to a person in this locality who has dealt 
in game for a great many years, he told me that he had often 
met with hares and rabbits affected in a similar manner in all 
their feet and also muzzle. The disease, he says, is more 
