ON APHTHOUS DISEASE AMONG CATTLE. 633 
presumptive causes, symptoms, course, and termination of this 
disease, as well as of the best preventive and curative means. 
We are induced to adopt this method of treating the subject, 
because we believe it will prove most advantageous to the scien- 
tific man and the agriculturist : the former may derive from it 
useful hints, tending to enlarge the extent of his pathological 
knowledge ; and the latter will find it more easy thence to deduce 
rules for his conduct in similar cases than he could from any 
analysis of each separate case. 
Synonymy ; General Characters of the Disease. 
Aphthce, or aphthous diseases, are also known by the terms sore 
mouth , canker in the mouth, & c. Toggia and Lamberlichi, two 
Italian authors, have described them ; the former under the name 
of fonzetto, and the latter under that of exanthema stomato inter - 
phalangial. M. Fabre, of Geneva, designates them phlyctcena - 
glosso-pode *. 
Throughout this paper we shall term it aphthous fever, a denomi- 
nation which seems to us preferable to any other, as the appear- 
ance of aphthce is always preceded by febrile movements, and evi- 
dent internal disorder. 
This affection, which usually shews itself in an enzootic or epi- 
zootic form, seldom terminates fatally. It is characterised by the 
development of small blisters, or whitish phlyctsense, containing an 
opaque serous fluid, in the mouth, or the muzzle, or in the interdi- 
gital space. To these vesicles succeed ulcerations, that are oc- 
casionally, but not often, found on the womb, the teats, round the 
eyes, on the pituitary membrane, and on the mucous membrane of 
the pharynx, the larynx, and the digestive canal. 
History. 
Aphthous diseases were known to the ancients. Hierocles, a 
Grecian veterinarian, gives a somewhat detailed account of them 
in his workst. Ruini and Francini, Italian authors, who wrote 
towards the latter end of the sixteeenth century, have likewise 
mentioned themt; but the annals of science yield a sufficient 
number of accounts of these diseases without our being obliged to 
seek for them at such remote periods. Michel Sugar relates that 
in 1763 and 1764, aphthae were developed in the cattle and do- 
* This denomination does not appear to us at all applicable : it would 
seem to infer that phlyctaenae were only seen in the mouth and on the feet. 
j* Instruct. Veter, t. iv, p. 170, Analyse de Huzard, pere. 
j Idem. 
VOL. XVIII. 4 R 
