706 
LIVERPOOL VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
In the first place, it does not appear to me to be settled beyond 
dispute as to the specific character of this disease. From experi- 
ments, conducted by Jenner and others, it would seem to have been 
considered that the virus from a horse can produce cow-pox. I think 
it high time a matter of so much importance should be quoted either as 
fact or fallacy. The late Prof. Dick fails to mention it in his manual. 
Prof. Gamgee says I have always described two forms of grease in 
the horse, the one in which the lymph was capable of inducing a 
well-marked eruption in man, and the other very similar in character, 
but unassociated with the development of a specific virus, and 
which is commonly the result of diffuse cutaneous inflammation, 
occurring under a variety of circumstances and often as a sequel in 
cases of inveterate cracked heels. 
Mr. Ceeley says, “ 1 have met with several intelligent dairymen 
whose relatives had seen good reason to ascribe its occurrence to 
the contagion of the equine vesicle, communicated by the hands of 
the attendants of both animals, but very little of that disease has 
been noticed of late years, though I know of several farriers who 
have been affected from the horse, and resisted subsequent variola- 
tion or vaccination, and have seen a few who distinguish between 
the equine vesicle and the grease, a recurrent disease eczema 
impetiginodes, as it appears to me.” 
The disease is at present believed to commence in an inflammatory 
action of the sebaceous glands, accompanied by an alteration of the 
secretion, which soon spreads to the surrounding tissues of the 
skin. It is divided into three forms, simple, ulcerative, andgrapey. 
The symptoms of simple are those of inflammation, one or both 
hind legs becoming tumefied and very painful, accompanied by a 
greater or lesser amount of febrile symptoms, if not speedily 
arrested, which will frequently be found very difficult, and in some 
cases all efforts will prove abortive, the affection soon proceeds to 
the ulcerative stage, and large cracks will be visible in the heel or 
round the back part of the fetlock, from which will issue a loath- 
some oily discharge ; on examination these cracks will be found to 
extend to adjoining cracks, and indeed the tumefied cuticle is 
detached from the deeper seated tissues for a considerable distance 
round the wounds. 
The diseased surface will soon be seen to throw out excessive and 
unhealthy granulations, and also other parts where no wound is seen 
to exist,, which leads one to believe that the discharge thrown out from 
the sebaceous glands is altogether changed in character. The hair, in 
time, according to the severity of the case, may or may not fall, but in 
severe cases it does, and the few hairs remaining are short, stunted, and 
bristly. The disease is always aggravated and the discharge more foetid 
in well-conditioned horses, and in wet weather ; indeed in dry weather 
the discharge will frequently cease, and an irritable itchiness super- 
vene, causing the horse to stamp violently. Grease most frequently 
commences in the spring and autumn, from various causes, among 
which may be mentioned the increasing vascularity of the skin at 
the time of the change of the coat, the increased amount of wet at 
