686 ON MURRAIN, OR THE VESICULAR EPIZOOTIC. 
sented the same general symptoms, and followed an analogous 
course. 
History . — The history of such diseases as the vesicular epizootic 
is not only an interesting. subject of investigation, but it also leads 
to a fuller and more accurate knowledge of the true pathology of 
the malady. Eruptive diseases existing epizootically were known 
in remote antiquity. Two of the plagues which were sent upon 
the land of Egypt to punish the obstinacy and disobedience of 
Pharaoh seem to have belonged to this class of maladies. Similar 
diseases were observed and recorded by the Greeks, and also by 
the Romans. During the dark ages which intervened between the 
fall of the Roman empire and the dawn of European civilisation, 
they appear to have occurred, especially in Italy and other parts of 
the Continent. About the middle of the eighteenth century, an 
aphthous (eruptive) disorder prevailed in Moravia, and also in 
many parts of France; and about the same time Britain was 
visited by a similar disease. About the year 1810, an analogous 
affection extended itself over the greater part of France, and in 
some districts was very severely felt, and many cattle perished. 
In 1837, an aphthous affection appeared in the Vosges, and shortly 
after prevailed extensively in many of the Swiss cantons. It existed 
in Auvergne early in 1839, and subsequently we find that it had 
spread over most of the south of France, and was also rapidly ex- 
tending itself in the northern provinces. 
This epizootic, which bears the closest resemblance to the one 
which almost immediately after attacked the ruminants in our own 
country, appears to have differed materially from the diseases which 
had previously devastated France, Britain, and the western parts 
of the Continent. These older epizootics were virulent and fatal 
in the extreme. The aphthae which attended them were, in many 
cases, merely an epiphenomenon, or accidental occurrence, forming 
but one of a train of aggravated symptoms ; the eruption was fol- 
lowed by indolent, unhealthy, and formidable ulcerations, and the 
fever attending the disease was of a typhoid character of the worst 
type. On the other hand, in the more recent epizootic, the cases 
have been much milder; the recoveries, almost without exception, 
favourable ; and the aphthae have constituted almost the only 
symptom of the disease. 
The vesicular epizootic first appeared in England in the spring 
of 1839. It was first observed in some of the south-eastern coun- 
ties ; but, whether it sprang up spontaneously, or was imported 
from the Continent, does not seem to have been clearly ascertained. 
It is, however, extremely probable that the malady was brought 
from abroad, either by the introduction of cattle, or of the skins of 
animals that had died from the disease, or been slaughtered while 
