232 
FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE. 
instances this immunity continues only for a short time, and 
the evidence of the recovered animal’s susceptibility to a 
second and even a third attack is of so positive a character 
that no reasonable doubt of the fact can be admitted. 
Although mouth and foot disease is not in its ordinary 
form a fatal malady, an animal affected with it in its virulent 
form is a pitiable object ; and there is no doubt that the 
amount of suffering endured is often excessive from the 
partial separation of the hoof and the extensive excoriations 
of the membrane of the tongue and mouth. Even when the 
vesicles are neither numerous nor large there is often present 
an irritable condition of the mucous membrane accompanied 
with exudation beneath the epithelium, causing it to become 
loosened and fall off, leaving the sensitive parts exposed. 
A painful instance of this accident occurred a short time ago; 
while the attendant was endeavouring to secure a diseased 
animal’s tongue in order that it might be examined, the 
entire cuticular covering of the anterior part of the organ 
came away in his hand, leaving the bleeding membrane 
exposed and causing the animal to tremble with pain. 
Owners of stock have not hitherto estimated mouth and 
foot disease as a serious infliction ; or, if they have, their 
calm endurance has been almost stoical in its character. If 
a tithe of the energy which was displayed in extirpating the 
cattle-plague had been directed to the eradication of the 
mouth and foot complaint, we should long since have 
ceased to regard it as one of the inevitable disabilities of 
grazing and dairy farming. 
To prove how great a loss is constantly being sustained in 
consequence of the ravages of this malady, it is only 
necessary to refer to its effects. First, there is the diminu- 
tion of the quantity of milk, which varies according to the 
severity of the attack. A good milker, in the worst stage of 
the disease, will, perhaps, not give more than a quart of milk 
for a day or two. In one instance, a dairyman with 15 cows, 
all of which were suffering from the disease, obtained in one 
morning’s milking only 15 quarts from the whole number. 
The general loss of milk, however, in a large dairy, under 
ordinary circumstances, will vary from one-third to two- 
thirds throughout the progress of the disease. When the 
affection is very virulent, a much greater loss will be sus- 
tained. Again, the deterioration of quality of milk, and its 
poisonous action upon young animals, are even more serious 
than the diminution of quantity. 
Loss of condition is another ill consequence which affects 
the grazier even more than the dairyman. The excessively 
