THE LATE EPIDEMIC DISEASES OF CATTLE, &C. 573 
foal, was inclined to attribute it to want of sufficient exercise, 
and standing too long; together in the stable. 
The third was a thorough-bred brood mare, and the fourth a 
black farming mare. 
The first was some months before the others, and stood in a 
different stable. The next two stood in the same stable, and the 
black mare in another stable. 
I understand that several mares about this neighbourhood 
have slipped their foals, and I am now very much inclined to 
think that there is some connexion between their doing so and 
the cattle epidemic*. We have given some other mares a dose 
of aperient medicine with a view to prevent their slipping their 
foalsf. 
The epidemic lasted about five or six weeks, most of the cattle 
being ill three or four days before we were aware of the precise 
nature of the ailment. We gave salts as soon as we were satis- 
fied about the nature of the complaint, a precaution which I 
believe had a beneficial effect. 
May not the excessive wetness of that winter, and the effect 
produced on cattle by that wetness, have had something to do 
with this distemper? May not even the nature of the herbage 
have been affected by it? or may it not have been originally an 
atmospheric affection, acting most violently upon cattle predis- 
posed from herbage, condition, &c., and these cattle so infected, 
infecting others by the offensive exhalation of their breath, &c.? 
The bailiff of The Honourable Champion Dymoke, 
transmitted an interesting account of the epidemic. On the 
28th of August, 1840, it commenced among 100 head of cattle, 
in Scrivelsby Coast Park, near Horncastle. In September it 
broke out among the sheep, the deer, the pigs, the poultry, and 
the young horses. The situation was well screened with wood, 
but rather damp. The cattle were out at grass — in good con- 
dition — of all ages — and might have taken the disease from cattle 
passing along the road. 
White bladders appeared in the mouth, and the feet were 
affected on the following day. 
In many cases the disease began to die away, but re-ap- 
peared in the course of a few days. The first attack wa.s exceed- 
ingly severe, but the second was of a milder character. They 
* Will some of our readers, and who are most extensively concerned in 
the breeding of cattle, take up this points It is one of considerable im- 
portance. — Y. 
f This is an interesting question. — Y. 
VOL. XVI. 4 H 
