FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE. 
231 
gland, the secretion of milk is almost or even entirely 
suppressed, and the acute disease degenerates into a low 
fever, which continues for a long time, inducing debility and 
extreme emaciation, and in some cases ending in death. 
Several instances of the malignant form of the disease have 
been seen during the present outbreak. The affected 
animals have suffered from effusions into the areolar tissue 
beneath the skin of the legs and some parts of the body; 
and when the enlarged parts have been punctured the dis- 
charged fluids have always been extremely foetid; great 
prostration accompanies this form of the malady, and death 
frequently results. In one dairy in the metropolis 1 6 cows 
died out of 86 ; and the average loss by death up to the 
present time has reached 10 per cent, in those localities 
where the disease has been very severe. 
Complication of the disease with other maladies is not 
uncommon, and the fatality which is ascribed in certain 
instances to mouth and foot complaint is often in reality due 
to pleuro-pneumonia, congestion of lungs, or disease of the 
digestive organs, either of which may exist in connection 
with eczema ; it is therefore very necessary in dealing with 
an outbreak of the disease to separate all those cases which 
are of a complicated character and require a special method 
of treatment. 
In ordinary instances the duration of the attack is not 
more than a week, but after the disease has begun to decline 
there is a period of convalescence of some length, during 
which the animals suffer from debility. When the appetite 
is quite restored the improvement is very rapid, and as in the 
case of febrile diseases generally the recovered animals thrive 
more than the healthy beasts which are placed under similar 
circumstances of feeding and management. 
A second attack of the disease is not an uncommon occur- 
rence. Mr. Priestman had under his care in 1868 some cows 
at Islington which were affected twice with eczema at an 
interval of about four months ; several similar instances have 
also been observed, and some animals have been known to 
suffer a third time from the disease. A cow belonging to 
Professor Simonds was attacked three times, and Mr. Thomas 
Duckworth (cattle salesman) had two steers which were 
affected while in his possession, the first time in November, 
again in April, and a third time in August. On the con- 
trary, experiments which have been made to determine this 
point have frequently been followed by the opposite result, 
recovered animals placed with diseased beasts having resisted 
the infection completely. It is probable that in many 
