FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE. 
65 
certainly does exert such an action ; it therefore should 
be exclusively kept in reserve for operations where peril is 
increased by pain. The use of the gas should be practised 
with all suitable guarantee and scientific precaution. 
5. Protoxide of nitrogen is of less convenient employment 
than the fluid anaesthetics, on account of the apparatus 
which it necessitates. — Lancet. 
OBSERVATIONS ON THE PREVAILING DISEASE OE CATTLE, 
KNOWN AS ECZEMA EPIZOOTICA, EPIZOOTIC APHTHA, 
VESICULAR DISEASE, DISTEMPER, MURRAIN, OR EOOT 
AND MOUTH COMPLAINT. 
By Professor Brown, Inspector in the Veterinary Department of the 
Privy Council, and Veterinary Inspector to the Bath and West of 
England Society and Southern Counties Association. 
Mouth and foot disease is not new to stock-owners of this 
country. For many years it has had a constant existence in 
the kingdom, prevailing sometimes to an extent sufficient to 
excite apprehension and occasion serious loss, and at other 
times attacking few animals and causing but little inconveni- 
ence. Among the memorable periods the present year will 
take an unhappily prominent place ; and if the malady con- 
tinue to advance with the rapidity which has distinguished its 
recent progress, the year 1869 will stand almost unprece- 
dented in this respect. Notwithstanding our long acquaint- 
ance with the affection, its true nature is not generally 
understood ; and its treatment has been mainly confided to 
the empiric, hence there has been but little advance made in 
the improvement of the means used to combat the disease, 
and not a few of the specifics which have been handed down 
to the present generation are more destructive in their effects 
than the affection which they are meant to cure. Empiricism is 
more favorably situated in regard to this than to any other 
infectious malady to which animals are liable ; if its nostrums 
do not absolutely kill, they are quite certain to obtain the 
credit of having cured, the patient. The disease left without 
interference seldom destroys life, and therefore every system 
of treatment which is not positively pernicious may claim a 
large percentage of recoveries in proof of its efficacy. 
Much if not all of the confusion which prevails repecting 
the nature of the disease and the proper method of treatment 
is due to the fact that the agriculturists have not hitherto 
seen the necessity for an exhaustive inquiry in reference to 
VOL. xlii. 5 
