MOTES ON VARIOLA EQUINA 
15 
much worse and produced, besides, some ugly sores which in¬ 
volved, not only the skin, but the tissues beneath, almost into the 
joint. The leg was swollen and tumefied, and inside it two ab- 
cesses were forming on the course of the lymphatics. 
Poulticing, another common remedy for scratches, has a very 
injurious effect on variola, producing tumefaction of the skin, and 
causing the pustules to develop into unhealthy granulations that 
may require treatment with caustics or the actual cautery. 
There is one other disease with which variola is apt to be con¬ 
founded. It is a form of eczema affecting the heels of the hind 
legs. It is a non-contagious skin disease, characterized by an erup¬ 
tion of vesicles, which frequently resemble those of variola. They 
are generally pointed instead of depressed at the centre, and dis¬ 
charge a thin fluid which forms little flaky scales off the skin. 
Sometimes these vesicles become pustular and the discharge forms 
a yellow scab extremely like variola, and it is not surprising that 
variola should have been frequently mistaken for it. Another 1 
cause of error is the name “ grease,” which is indiscriminately ap¬ 
plied both to this skin disease and to variola. Even Williams 
falls into the common error and describes both diseases under the 
name eczema impetiginodes or eczema pustulosum. The distinc¬ 
tion between them is not very difficult, and if the observer re¬ 
members the shot-like feel of the nodules in the first stage of 
variola, and the peculiar smell of the exudation in the second, to¬ 
gether with the constitutional symptoms, he will not be likely to 
mistake it for eczema. 
The name grease possesses a peculiar interest from its connec¬ 
tion with the discovery of vaccination. In his famous work on 
the cow-pox, published in 1801, Jenner says : “ There is a di- 
“ sease to which the horse, from his state of domestication, is fre- 
“ quently subject. The farriers have termed it the grease. It is 
“ an inflammation and swelling of the heels, accompanied at its 
“ commencement with small cracks or fissures, from which issues 
“ a limpid fluid, possessiftg properties of a very peculiar kind. 
“ This fluid seems to be capable of generating a disease in the 
“ human body (after it has undergone the modification I shall 
“ presently speak of), which bears so strong a resemblance to the 
