THE PRESENT EPIDEMIC AMONG CATTLE, &C. 303 
the feet. They were well soon : the others remained lame for a 
long time. Nothing must be done to retard nature in vigorously 
developing the symptoms, either in the feet or mouth ; for the 
greater the distention of the cuticular coat of the tongue from 
effusion of serum underneath it, producing pouches either gene- 
rally or partially on the tongue, palate, or lips, so much the 
sooner do the animals get well, and the feet also suffer less. I do 
not break the pouches of the tongue or lips. If they remain 
whole, the animal will continue feeding; but if the coat is by 
accident torn off, as is often done by abruptly handling the 
tongue, the animal suffers much pain and refuses food. In some 
cases the fluid escapes by bursting from engorgement. This 
usually happens at the side of the tongue where the coat is 
thinnest. It also escapes from attrition in the act of manduca- 
tion, either from pressure or from being punctured by the eatable 
substances. The lameness in the feet sometimes lasts only a few 
hours, more particularly in those animals in whom Nature has 
been profuse in establishing serous infiltration on the tongue and 
surrounding parts. The management adopted by me consisted in 
keeping the animals dry and warm, allowing the beast any thing 
he had a desire to eat. Our cattle, from scarcity of provender, are 
in low order. I have not had recourse to bleeding, in either fat 
or lean stock. I have invariably observed that, as soon as the 
secretions of the bowels are increased by the action of carmina- 
tives, and such laxatives as determine to or increase the secre- 
tions of the skin, the disease is at once arrested. For this 
purpose sulphur in proportionate doses, conjoined with aroma- 
tics, has proved I may almost say a specific. 
The outrageous doses of salts administered by some have done 
injury, by inducing a debile state of the animal. I avoid the ap- 
plication of poultices to the feet, or any kind of moisture — they 
induce suppuration, give pain, and prevent the union of the 
claws by adhesive inflammation. Wether sheep and barreners 
in my locality have all done well under this disease : but most de- 
vastating havoc has been made by its malign influence on the 
progeny of the parturient ewe. At this period of the year — with 
us the middle of our lambing season — the destructive ravages 
it has made are almost incalculable. One-half of the lambs 
dropped at present have died from the third or fourth day to as 
many weeks old. The ewes with the disease lamb well, and the 
lambkins seem thriving until the third day, when they begin to 
droop and, in a few hours, are dead. A listlessness comes over 
them and a general torpor, and they die in a comatose state, with, 
in some, an involuntary discharge of faeces and urine a little pre- 
viously. I have also positive proof that the young lambs would 
