884 
ECZEMA EPIZOOTICA. 
marking its progress and general and special characteristics. 
Perhaps no epizooty was ever so closely followed, or so carefully 
observed as that of eczema epizootica^^ in 1838-42. From its 
first appearance in the plains of Southern Russia and Poland, 
in the spring of 1838, during its progress through nearly every 
country on the Continent by well-defined and successive steps, 
until it finally reached Britanny in 1842, after having tra¬ 
versed our own islands, this panzootic disease was watched 
and described by members of the veterinary profession, who 
seem, unwittingly, to have vied with each other in noting 
every point worthy of observation. The consequence was 
that we have a complete history of the malady as it affected 
one class or all of the domestic animals, or man himself, as 
well as the fact prominently brought before us that the 
disease invariably followed the tracks of cattle traffic, and 
that it was eminently contagious and capable of extending 
itself to all animals. In subsequent invasions, as I have had 
occasion to regret, there has not been this laudable desire to 
register the first appearance, progress, and varying features 
of aphthous fever, at least in this country. It would appear 
as if the somewhat sudden extension of railway communica¬ 
tion here and on the Continent, as well as the increased 
facilities offered by the multiplication of steamships for 
transporting cattle from regions wide apart in a very brief 
space of time, tended not only to spread the contagion so 
rapidly and generally as to give it the semblance of spon¬ 
taneous and simultaneous origin, but so accustomed veterina¬ 
rians to look upon the occurrence of such like diseases as 
a matter of everyday business and unworthy of special 
inquiry. 
Such is the only plea one would like to advance for the 
paucity of communications relative to this and other epi¬ 
zootics in our professional journal, and I would not now have 
ventured to break the seal of silence but for one circumstance. 
In the November number of the Veterinarian^ I observed that 
at a meeting of the Eastern Counties Veterinary Medical 
Association, held at Norwich in October last, during a con¬ 
versation on eczema epizootica, Mr. Cleveland stated that his 
experience of the disease led him to the opinion that, if it 
were neglected in the earlier stages, it might result in dysen¬ 
tery ; and he cited cases which had recently occurred in his 
practice, some of which had terminated fatally. 
This remark of our colleague reminded me of a complica¬ 
tion of what was termed a catarrhal nature, noticed by M. 
Zundel, an able and a zealous veterinary surgeon, of Mul- 
house, France, during the winters of 1862-63 and 1863-64, 
