THE LATE EPIDEMIC DISEASES AMONG HOUSES, &c. 273 
and about halt of the number of cattle were affected. They were 
out of doors, in good condition, had been running in the park, and 
during the storm were in a yard upon barley straw. They were 
evidently losing condition, and forsaking their food. This was 
three days after their supposed infection. There was disease of 
the mouth first, and afterwards of the feet ; and the oldest cows 
were the worst, both in the feet and the mouth. In some herds 
the disease appeared more than once ; but it was not so violent in 
the second attack. 
Their food was chiefly linseed cakes until they could crop the 
grass. Their mouths were rubbed with common salt, and cos- 
tiveness was obviated by gentle aperient medicines — principally 
Epsom salts. A solution of powdered vitriol in water was ap- 
plied to the feet. 
The number of animals affected by the disease included 
short-horn cows, heifers, steers, calves of different ages, and three 
and four-year-old West-Highland heifers. One calf died at a 
week old, but that was the only animal that was lost. 
The quantity of milk was not diminished when the udder was 
not affected. 
Two calves were tried from the milk of the infected cows. 
One of them died as just stated. The other, a little older, was 
also attacked, but very soon recovered. Females pregnant, or 
when suckling their young, seemed equally to participate in the 
disease, but which seldom or never produced abortion. A few of 
the in-calf heifers, and some that were in milk, and also several 
store pigs, were attacked with cutaneous eruptions. The state or 
condition in which the disease left those who recovered seemed 
to depend almost entirely on the condition in which they were 
when first attacked. 
On the Influence of Food on Epidemic Disease, and 
the Propagation of the Disease to the Human 
Being by contact. 
By W. H. Wyett, Esq., Painswick , Gloucestershire. 
Sir, — Perceiving among the queries about the epidemic none 
specially directed to the possible influence of impure food, such 
as mildewed turnips or grass, smutty straw or mouldy hay, I am 
induced to call the attention of the veterinary committee to the 
similarity of some of the symptoms to those caused by ergot of 
rye, as noticed by Professor Henslow in his very interesting pa- 
per on the diseases of wheat. 
The ulcers on the feet and tongue being common to both, and the 
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