THE EPIDEMIC AMONG CATTLE, SHEEP, AND PIGS. 153 
about the hour of bedtime ; and, believing that he had taken a 
cold, as he termed it, he drank a posset of treacle and milk. 
For some hours after, although warmly covered up, the cold fit con- 
tinued. By the morning this had left him, and was succeeded by 
the hot fit. There was a great degree of constitutional disturbance ; 
he had a difficulty of deglutition; his bowels were costive ; his nose 
constantly itching ; his tongue and palate dry ; and the pulse 
ranging between 70 and 100, accompanied by great prostration of 
strength. During the night which succeeded, he could get no sleep ; 
the itching of the nose was increased, and sometimes he had sharp 
and violent pains in the head and face. The next morning there 
was a discharge of an offensive matter from his nostrils ; and for 
the first time he observed the vesicles on his gums and tongue. 
This was the period when I first saw him : he took some salts and 
senna, which freely purged him. On the next day the discharge 
had assumed a semi-purulent appearance. He afterwards took 
some mild aperient medicine, and in about a week or ten days was 
nearly recovered. 
I have every reason to believe that the disease was communi- 
cated to him from having injured one of his fingers in giving a 
drench to a cow. The wound had a very unhealthy appearance 
for some time previous to his being attacked, as I have described. / 
9. I have observed this disease appear first in the feet in many 
instances, before it was visible either in the mouth or the tongue, 
&c. ; but in the greatest number it was first observed by the in- 
creased secretion of saliva, the vesicles on the tongue and buccal 
membrane of the mouth, and the difficulty of mastication, &c. 
There will be no occasion to describe the symptoms, it having been 
done by so many already. 
10. Ditto. 
11. In many instances the animals were bled by their owners 
previous to my seeing them. I am not aware that this either 
accelerates or retards the recovery. My usual plan was to ad- 
minister doses of Glauber salts and sulphur, in the proportion of 
four parts of the former to one of the latter, so as to produce purg- 
ing, the dose being regulated according to the age and strength of 
the animal. The vesicles were dressed daily with a strong solu- 
tion of the sulphate of copper. Proper attention was paid to their 
comforts, clean dry straw given them every day, and they were 
allowed as much gruel as they would drink. In some few cases, 
where there was great debility, and the animal did not quickly 
recover, I found great benefit in the use of the spt. ether, nit., in 
doses of from half an ounce to two ounces, given daily with gruel. 
12. The disease was generally at its height about the third day 
