HUMAN AND ANIMAL VAlilOLiE. 
57 
namely, the occurrence of the disease in a young heifer (shirk) 
to which of course the disease could not have been communicated 
by those casualities which commonly propagate the vaccine variola 
amongst milch cows. The cause which originated tlm disease 
amongst them at the same time affected the young heifer, which 
hitherto had not been considered liable to the vaccine disease, 
simply because no one had seen the animal affected by it. Now 
it is known, both in this country and in Gei many, to be liable to 
the disease. 
“ The proprietor of the animals referred to in this narrative 
had the disease communicated to himself. He had never suffered 
from small-pox nor the vaccine diseases ; and it was his own spon¬ 
taneous conviction ‘ that his cows had been infected from human 
small-pox effluvia,’ to which undoubtedly they had been exposed. 
He had not the remotest idea of the medical theories concerning 
the nature of the disease, and consequently had no prepossession 
in favor of the opinion he thus spontaneously expressed. His 
cattle had hitherto been in good health, and no vaccine variola 
had been known in the vicinity.”* 
Now it is easy to perceive, from this description, that the 
malady the cows suffered from was not variola at all, but simply 
Foot-and-Mouth Disease ( Eczema Epizootica). The vesicles , the 
constitutional symptoms , the loss of milk, but, above all, the driv¬ 
elling of saliva from the mouth, frequent inflation and retraction 
of the cheeks , staring of the coat , tucking up of the limbs , sticking 
up of the back , rapid loss of flesh , are all typical symptoms of 
this epizootic and now well-known disorder, and certainly not 
those of cow-pox. Thu foot-and-mouth disease was introduced 
into this country for the first time in 1839, and nothing being 
known of its history or symptomatology, it caused much aston¬ 
ishment, as well as surmise with regard to its nature. It spread 
rapidly over the three kingdoms. The prevalence of small-pox 
in the village of Oakley, and the occurrence of this bovine plague, 
among the cows, was a mere coincidence; while the almost sim¬ 
ultaneous development of the malady in the latter is further proof 
* Trans. Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, vol. x. 
