G40 
THE PRESENT EPIDEMIC AMONG CATTLE. 
tion was between the under lip and the gums. In two out of the 
six it extended over the muzzle to the nostrils. This would neces- 
sarily cause a great deal of pain, and the poor animals were totally 
unable to masticate their food. In the two whose tongue was the 
principal seat of the disease, the membrane of the tongue com- 
pletely peeled off. A peculiar symptom accompanied this — a con- 
tinual catching up and shaking of one or the other of the hind legs. 
Two out of the six suffered so much pain that they became alto- 
gether furious. They broke away, and ran into the shoot or recepta- 
cle for the urine or dung, and, in getting them out, their horns were 
broken. They were, however, penned up, and, as soon as they 
could be approached, he took from them a considerable quantity of 
blood. This was all that was wanted. They became quiet, their 
mouths got well, and there was an end of the matter with regard 
to them. 
Mr. Rhodes, the owner, was a little alarmed about this. He, 
and Mr. Hill agreed with him, was at first inclined to attribute the 
disease to some poisonous herbage in the new field. Mr. Morton 
entertained the same opinion, and yet the suspicion of its being of 
an epidemic character was not absent from their minds. Five or 
six days afterwards this was plain enough. No fewer than twenty 
of the cows became more or less lame. Two days had scarcely 
passed ere that twenty had increased to more than two hundred. 
There was some discharge from the nostrils, but no vesication of 
the mouth. The grievance lay in the foot, and particularly in the 
cartilago-ligamentous substance which forms the heels. An en- 
largement appeared immediately at the posterior division of the 
foot, and at the separation between the heels ; it was hot and ten- 
der: a vesicle followed evidently filled with serum, and, if not 
lanced, it burst, and a serous fluid exuded. The after state of the 
case, and the after treatment, depended on the opening of this ve- 
sicle. If the fluid was liberated in time, one dressing with the 
caustic that will presently be named was sufficient; but if that 
had been neglected, the fluid insinuated itself between the hoof 
and sensible laminae, and burst out at other parts of the coronet, or 
the hoof dropped off. In addition to this, the interdigital mem- 
brane became one mass of excoriation or ulceration. 
The effect of poultices was tried at first, but they were feeble 
remedies in such a case. The dressing Avhich was most useful, — 
which, in fact, never failed ultimately, and, applied in time, arrested 
the disease at once, — consisted of equal parts of muriatic acid and 
tincture of myrrh, applied by means of a brush or feather — the ani- 
mal being placed in a dry yard, and the foot kept from all acci- 
dental moisture by means of triangular pieces of cloth, secured by 
list, and not by tarred twine. 
