EDITORIAL. 
3 
sore, the lesion assumes a somewhat malignant aspect. The 
cutaneous papillae become hypertrophied and congested and read¬ 
ily bleed on being scraped. A purulent fluid of a dirty gray 
color and possessing a very unpleasant odor, is constantly dis¬ 
charged, and this collects on the surface of the sore, and with 
the viscosity produces a repulsive condition—a condition, in 
fact, closely allied to that which is seen in grease of the leg of 
the horse or canker in the foot of that animal. In addition to 
these diffused sores, others smaller in extent may form on the 
skin of the leg and even on the arm, but these isolated sores do 
not, as a rule, present the foul conditions just described, as the 
discharges, becoming inspissated, form a crust on the surface ; 
and the same remarks apply, in the main, to the labial sores.” 
The fact that an error of diagnosis had been made by one who 
is well acquainted with the symptoms of foot-and-mouth dis¬ 
ease can be our excuse for presenting our veterinarians in the 
United States with such a minute description, but as similar 
errors might be made by those who have never seen a case of 
aphthous fever, and we think there are many in America, we 
have thought proper to guard them against such an error. 
There seems to be another important point in relation to this 
question of differential diagnosis ; it is the fact that this disease 
of sheep has never been observed to spread to cattle, and that 
any disease affecting the feet and mouth of sheep and which does 
not spread to cattle in contact with them may without hesita¬ 
tion be pronounced not to be foot-and-mouth disease. 
* 
* * 
A Veterinary Syndicate. —The customs and habits of 
various countries are quite curious, and if some organizations 
are established with speculative objects principally, in others, 
on the contrary, they are for the moral benefit of a number 
collectively or individually. 
The creation and organization of the powerful trades unions 
seem in a great many points to partake of both. Syndicates, 
however, it seems to us, assume more of either one or the other. 
After all, syndicates have good objects. Trades unions, we be- 
