ON MURRAIN, OR THE VESICULAR EPIZOOTIC. 43 
appearance of the disease should be immediately separated from 
the rest. Sound animals should be prevented from having 
access to, or using the pails and other utensils employed for the 
unsound stock; and it would even seem advisable, in the case 
of the vesicular epizootic, that each class of animals should have 
separate attendants. 
During the prevalence of an epizootic, much care should be 
exercised in the selection and purchase of stock. All animals 
obtained in markets, or from localities where the disease exists, 
or has recently existed, should be particularly examined ; and, 
when brought home, should for a considerable time be kept 
separate from the rest of the stock. In the case of the vesicular 
epizootic, these remarks apply to the purchase of sheep and pigs, 
as well as of cattle. 
Some practitioners have recommended bleeding, and the in- 
sertion of rowels and setons in the dew-lap, as means of pre- 
venting the vesicular epizootic. These measures, however, bv 
lowering the powers of life and causing irritation, are more likely 
to induce than to prevent the disease. Depletion can only be 
requisite in a very few cases where the animals are in a state of 
excessive plethora. When necessary, it may be effected by 
judicious blood-letttng ; but more safely and effectually by the 
administration oflaxatives, and by attention to diet. 
As to preventive measures against the disease, and as miti- 
gating its effects among sheep and pigs, the same general prin- 
ciples must be carried out as have been indicated with regard to 
cattle. They must be kept clean, dry, and comfortable. Sheep 
should be placed in well-drained pastures. Their food should 
be suitable both in quantity and in quality. A system of strict 
separation of the healthy from the sick stock should be pursued, 
and those dying from the disease, or while affected by it, must be 
immediately removed ; and, as a further precaution, interred in 
their skins at a distance from the haunts of other animals. 
Conclusion . — In conclusion, the statements made in the pre- 
ceding pages may be briefly summed up as follows, referring the 
reader to the details given under the head of each particular 
subject : — 
The propagation of the vesicular epizootic is influenced, and 
its severity increased, by the operation of the ordinary causes of 
disease ; but these causes seem, in the case of the malady under 
consideration, to act chiefly as predisposing causes. Its most 
active and efficient exciting cause is contagion. 
In all animals liable to the vesicular epizootic, the character- 
istic symptom is the formation of vesicles on the more exposed 
mucous surfaces, on some parts of the skin, and on the interdi- 
gital substance. It is an eruptive affection, resembling in its 
