584 
REMARKS ON FOOT-ROT IN SHEEP. 
and Hertwig, of Berlin, on epizootic or mild foot-rot, I am induced 
to believe that it may not prove superfluous if I make a few brief 
remarks on the form in which this disease here manifests itself, 
and the severity with which it attacks some individuals. I have 
here seen it prevail among cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs, attacking 
at first several individuals, and then whole flocks together. 
The first symptom was a scarcely discernible lameness, which, 
however, soon increased to such a degree that the animal could not 
get on at all, but stood still every moment, seemed dull, and lost 
its appetite. To this was associated more or less fever ; and I 
soon observed, first on one here and there, and then on many of 
them, an inflammatory swelling on the coronet, which had already 
begun to form matter, and eventually broke either there or between 
the claws at the heel. 
The matter which oozed from these sores appeared to be pecu- 
liarly acrid ; it ate into all the surrounding parts, and often created 
such an extensive wound, that the whole foot was covered with it, 
and the horny sole was loosened from the claws, and at length came 
off. Nay, I have even seen caries of the hoof and coronet bone 
produced, and the poor animals have wasted away and died under 
this complicated suffering. 
It is by no means easy to state precisely how this disease origi- 
nated ; whether it was brought to these parts by some Polish swine 
which were brought here for sale, or whether it arose from influ- 
ence of the weather which we had previously had. Many persons 
are of opinion that it is caused by the sheep having been kept on 
hot sandy soils during a long prevalence of dry weather ; others, 
trace its origin to the animals having been pastured on damp 
marshy land during particularly wet summers. 
Whenever I have been called in to render my professional 
assistance in such cases, which not unfrequently happened during 
the late prevalence of foot-rot in these parts, my first endeavours 
were always to discover the origin of the disease, — whether it had 
been introduced by any animals brought from some place where 
foot-rot was prevalent ; but it always appeared that the previous 
hot, dry summer, when the sheep could find but little pastur- 
age, and the land was dry and burning, and water scarce, and 
what there was being very bad, had laid the foundation of the 
disease. 
I always found that in a flock of sheep there were three separate 
stages of disease. 
In the first, the coronet, &c. was of a pale reddish hue, and 
painful to the touch ; 
In the second, the formation of matter had commenced ; 
