ON AN APHTHOUS AFFECTION AMONG CATTLE. 
57 
lotions. The ulcers must be dressed with some desiccative liquid, 
either a solution of nitrate of silver or the acetate of copper, if they 
put on any bad characters. In cases of perforation of the synovial 
capsule, we have obtained very satisfactory results from the use of 
pure extract of lead. 
When there is detachment of the crust of the wall of the hoof, 
care must be taken to cut away with a drawing-knife the detached 
horn. We have observed that this operation favours rather than 
retards the progress of the ulceration. M. Casset has made the 
same observation. Desiccatives and excitants are required to sti- 
mulate the wound; and, above all, strict attention to cleanliness. 
These will ensure a cure when no serious complications have super- 
vened. In larger animals, the shedding of the hoof is a very serious 
termination — one that, under most circumstances, entails the neces- 
sity of having the beast destroyed. But in sheep there is no occa- 
sion to despair of effecting a cure ; the live parts will, in the space 
of about a fortnight, again become covered with horn, about which 
time the animal also again begins to rest upon the sole. 
The presence of aphthous ulcerations on the teats may produce 
inflammation of them ; in general, it determines milk abscess. Care 
must, therefore, be taken to milk the cows, and to attack the in- 
flammatory symptoms at their very first onset. Vapour baths, 
narcotic decoctions of poplar used as fomentations, bandages 
kept on the loins, strict attention to cleanliness, and a frequent 
renewal of the litter, have almost always succeeded in effecting a 
resolution of the inflammation. 
Injurious Treatment. 
We cannot too strongly condemn early bleedings, and those 
fever-exciting drinks which are too often administered in the 
country. This irrational mode of treatment impedes the course of 
the disease, tends to throw the eruption in, and produces fatal me- 
tastasis. Cattle owners would always find it to their advantage to 
have recourse at once to a veterinary surgeon, whose assistance or 
advice would put them in the proper road to cure. 
The Nature of Aphthous Diseases. 
According to M. Huzard, sen., this disease consists in an ex- 
treme irritation of the extremities of the excretory vessels of the 
salivary glands and mucous follicules; an irritation caused by some 
acridity of the fluid which they conduct, or which they secrete. 
It is only necessary to mention this opinion, and it will at once 
be rejected without further examination : the author has been led 
VOL. XIX. I 
