APHT1UE. This contagious malady, after having been well known in Central Europe for more than two centuries, reached Great Britain in 1839, Denmark in 1841, and the united 1870. It is supposed to have been introduced from cattle shipped from England in that year and landed in Canada. It made its appearance in Oneida county, N. Y , in September, from which it spread over various portions of the seaboard States. It is known by various names in Eng land, principally as foot and mouth disease, and among veterinarians as epizootic, aptha and aphthous fever. Investigations under the direc tion of the Commissioner of Agriculture -at Washington, show the following facts in relation to the disease, its causes and cures: This conta gious malady of stock belongs to the class of zymotic disease, or, in other words, it is caused, like specific fevers generally, by the introduction into the system of a poison germ, which propa gates itself, and increases in the blood and tissues in a manner allied to the growth of a ferment in a saccharine solution. During this reproduc tion of the virus in such fevers, the system pass.ps through a series of successive stages of disease, the nature and duration of which are determined by the character of the particular poison taken in, and during which the poison germs (conta gious principles) are given off abundantly by one or other or all of the secreting surfaces. Hence, like other zymotic diseases, this is altogether specific in its cause, its nature, and its mode of propagation. As known in Western Europe and America, this disease is invariably due to a virus or contagion thrown off by some animal suffer ing from the disease; it is always manifested by a slight preliminary fever, and a period of erup tion and decline, and these are respectively of constant and well defined duration. These dif ferent periods of the disease are characterized by varied manifestations. The first period is that of incubation during which the poison germs are in the body of the animal, and propagating them selves there, but have not yet affected the consti tution so as to impair the functions, or give rise to the more manifest symptoms of illness. To wards the end of this period, however, the ther mometer shows an increase of temperature in the interior of the body, of about two degrees beyond the natural standard. This period lasts twenty-four to forty-eight hours, though in rare cases it may apparently extend to a week. It is followed by a period of eruption, which is first manifested by the redness, heat and tenderness of the udder and teats, of the space between the hoofs, and of the membrane of the mouth. In the course of one day more, these parts are found to be the seat of numerous hemispherical eleva tions or blisters, caused by the effusion of a clear yellowish fluid from the blood-vessels be neath the cuticle or scarfskin. These increase in size for the next two or three days, burst, and dry up. The period of decline is marked by the dry ing and scabbing over of the sores caused by the rupture of the blisters, and by the reproduction of the lost cuticular covering or scarfskin. The elevated temperature, which had declined some what on the appearance of the blisters, now en tirely subsides, unless maintained by exposure, or the irritation of the sorts by dirt and other bodies. This period has passed and the disease is at an end by the fifteenth day, in favorable cases. The only known cause of itself capable of inducing the disease is contagion, or contact of a sound animal with the virus discharged from the sores of an aphthous patient. Many acces
sory causes may be named, such as a wet, muddy season, which insures the contact of the virus deposited on the soil with the skin about the top of the hoofs; the accumulation of cattle in large fairs or markets; the aggregation of large num bers of live stock for the supply of armies in the field ; travel of stock by rail or road, and the like. Yet these are but means for the diffusion of the poison, while no one of them; nor all taken together, can call the disease into existence where the poison is not already present. Such compre hensive facts as these narrow the list of real causes down to the simple contact of the virus with a healthy animal. This virus, however, is perhaps the most contagious known. It is often carried on the clothes, boots and hands of man; on the fibers of hay or straw; preserved on the walls, floors, mangers, and other fittings of the building; on stable utensils; in yards, parks, roads and railroad cars; on drinking troughs; or it may be carried on the legs or bodies of dogs, chickens, rats, and other animals which themselves escape the infliction. In short, any solid body may re tain, and be a bearer of, this contagion. Fortu nately, it does not spread to any extent in the atmosphere. Nothing is more common than to find a herd on one side of a road struck down by the disease, while another in a field on the oppo site side of the road remains perfectly healthy. It may be carried by a strong wind in the form of a virulent saliva, or the virus may dry up on light bodies, such as paper, hay, etc., which are afterward', borne off by the wind. It may be carried by men or animals, or by water running from the diseased to the healthy lot; but, in the absence of such agencies, the breadth of a com mon road is amply sufficient to circumscribe the disease Cloven-footed animals appear to be the natural victims of this disease, and all species are about equally obnoxious to its attacks; but it may be communicated to many if not all other warm-blooded animals by inoculation or by con tact of the virulent discharges with the mucous membranes. Its transmission to man has been noticed during almost every great outbreak since that of 1695. It has been reported, among others, by Valentine, Nadberny, Levitzky, Kolb, Hen wig,' Bayer, Bosquet, Londe, Levigny, Dun dussy, Hubner, Holmes, Balfour, Karkeek .and Watson. Cases of the disease in man have been seen in Albany and at South Dover, Dutchess county, N. Y., during the present outbreak. It shows itself in man by slight feverishness, and the formation on the tongue and inside the lips and cheeks, and sometimes on the hands, of small blisters, rarely amounting to the bulk of a lentil. In children and young animals, feeding exclusively on milk, diarrhcea and fatal inflam mation of the stomach and bowels occasionally supervene. It is further to be dreaded that the malady, gaining a lasting hold on the dairies of our large cities, may swell the list of mortality of the infant population by inducing those fatal diarrhceas and enteritis reported by HUbner, Bal four and Watson. Its existence in horses is reported .by Sagar, Cleaver and Laubender, but the susceptibility of the soliped is very slight, and he can probably be affected only by inocula tion. In chickens it has been frequently noticed —among others, by Hennicke, Sagar, Lamber licchi, Dickens and Youatt. Chickens were attacked in December, 1870, on the farm of Mr. Eighmie, La Grange, Dutchess county, N. Y.