thing he recommends besides, is thin oatmeal gruel, acidulated with white-wine vinegar; for he appears to consider the malady to be so fatal that medical treatment avails nothing against it. Here, however, we cannot but deem him wrong; many of the most virulent, and, if neglected, fatal of the diseases to which our domesticated animals are subject, will yield to the influence of a judicious course of treatment, and many a valuable animal has been saved by the skill and attention of a veterinary surgeon. We should recommend laxative drenches, stimulating frictions, warmth, and cleanliness, and a seton in the chest.
In the epidemic which prevailed in 1841, throughout the greater part of England, swine were affected, as well as horses, cattle, and sheep, and often took it before any of the rest of the stock, but in general had it more mildly. This malady was of a highly contagious, inflammatory character, and affected chiefly the mucous and secretory tissues. When once it entered a farm-yard, it spread rapidly, until every ox, sheep, or pig was infected, and in some instances it passed to the human being. Damp, wet weather appeared most favorable to its development; and, from all accounts, it seems to have arisen from some atmospheric agency.
Symptoms.—Lameness of one or more of the feet, accompanied with heat around the hoof and lower part of the leg; discharge of saliva from the mouth and nostrils; champing or grinding of the lower jaw; ulceration of the mouth and tongue, extending even to the snout; dullness, inappetency, constipation, rapid emaciation, and cough.
Treatment.—The ulcerated portions of the feet and the detached pieces of horn should be carefully pared, and the parts daily washed with a solution of blue vitriol, or smeared with warm tar; the mouths also dressed with a strong solution of alum; and from an ounce and a half to two ounces of Glauber salts, dissolved in water, and given in their food. Where the malady was attacked in its onset, these simple remedies sufficed to produce convalescence in from fourteen to one-and-twenty days.
Post-mortem appearances.—There were patches of inflammation throughout the whole of the intestines, both externally and internally; the liver was sound; the heart flabby and soft; the lungs shrivelled, flattened, and diminished to one half their natural size, and in some cases hepatized; the diaphragm, pleura, and bronchial tubes of a greenish hue, and evidently gangrenous.
The flesh of pigs that had died of this epidemic was eaten by some persons without their suffering any ill effects; nevertheless the experiment was hazardous.
