18 
THE CATTLE MURRAIN OE INDIA. 
different outbreaks; it is usually scattered over the whole 
body ; the skin has been wiped almost free of hair, leaving it 
red and raw ; the extent to which the hair can be removed is 
a good index of the severity of the eruption. Some observers 
record a similar eruption in the mouth, palate, and alimentary 
canal ; aphthous ulcers have been noted on lips and gums, but 
are rare appearances. When the disease is of a still more 
malignant form no eruption has appeared, the fever assumes 
a typhoid character, the discharges from the eyes and nose 
become sticky, ichorous, or even purulent and fetid, prostra- 
tion and death ensue, usually between the fifth and tenth 
days. A slight eruption, with continuous diarrhoea, are bad 
symptoms. If the eruption comes out freely, accompanied 
by cessation of fever, the faeces change their character, and 
although they continue thin, assume a natural colour, the 
discharges from the head diminish, an inclination for food is 
shown, and the patient slowly recovers in from fifteen to 
twenty days ; but in some cases imperfectly, lingering on for 
months without thriving or putting on condition. 
A second attack of gootee is almost unknown. 
I cannot determine the numbers that escape infection, 
although exposed to the disease, but am inclined to believe in 
some outbreaks it is very large, as isolation is very rarely 
attempted. It is important to bear this in mind when con- 
sidering the high rate of mortality, — from 40 to 80 per cent, 
of those actually attacked, I think more deaths are attri- 
butable to neglect and starvation during the progress of the 
sickness than to its virulence ; the natives are so apathetic 
that they will not even supply the patient with gruel sufficient 
to maintain life. I am confirmed in this view by the re- 
coveries amongst Government cattle, and also by the success 
of Mr. Thacker's treatment in the Madras Presidency. 
3rd. Puschima. This terrible epizootic is thought by 
many to be identical with the rinderpest of Europe. The 
symptoms closely resemble the severer forms of gootee; 
mouth hot, breath fetid ; in some cases ulcerated spots are 
observed on the nasal membrane, which is deeply red; the 
spots are small, superficial, irregularly edged, and of a yellow 
tinge. In rare cases the mouth, opposite the incisor teeth, 
shows a few sores ; the evacuations are more fetid; diarrhoea 
sets in on the second or third day, and is described as “ thin, 
ejected with violence, mixed with mucus and air, and shortly 
with blood." And by Mr. Gudgin, V.S., in the Birmah 
epidemic, 1866, as ff a dark, coffee colour, tinged with blood, 
but more frequently of a dirty yellow colour, thin, and 
offensive to the smell." Cracks in the skin have been named, 
