H DISEASE.

In examining a case of mycotic stomatitis it is important not to mistake it
for foot-and-mouth disease, which has appeared in this country on six
occasions only. This may be easily accomplished by taking into
consideration the fact that in the contagious foot-and-mouth disease there
is a rapid infection of the entire herd, as well as of any hogs and sheep
that may be on the premises. It is also readily transmitted to neighboring
herds by the spread of the infection from diseased animals, but it never
occurs spontaneously. The characteristic lesion of foot-and-mouth disease
is the appearance of vesicles containing serous fluid in the mouth and upon
the udder, teats, heels, and coronary bands of the affected animals.
Drooling is profuse, and there is a peculiar smacking sound made by sucking
the affected lips.

Mycotic stomatitis occurs sporadically on widely separated farms, affecting
only a few animals in each herd, and the lesions produced consist of
erosions without the typical vesicular formations of foot-and-mouth
disease. The failure of the vesicles, if any appear, to spread extensively
in the mouth, the absence of these blisters on other portions of the body--
notably the teats and udder, and characteristically the feet--together with
the absence of infection in the herd, and the inability to transmit the
disease to calves by inoculation, distinguish between this affection and
foot-and-mouth disease. The erosions of the mouth are not so extensive and
they heal more rapidly in mycotic stomatitis. The swelling of the feet and
stiffness of the animal are also more marked in mycotic stomatitis.

ERGOTISM.

The lesions resulting from ergotism may be differentiated from those of
mycotic stomatitis by the lack of ulcerative eruptions in the mouth and by
the location of the lesions at the tips of the ears, end of the tail, or
upon the lower part of the legs, usually below the knees or hocks. The
lesions of ergotism do not take the form of ulcers or festers, but the end
of the limb affected is diseased "in toto" and the eruption extends
entirely around the limbs, followed soon afterwards by a distinct line of
demarcation between the healthy skin above and the diseased below. The
absence of suppurating sores between the claws and on the mucous membrane
of the mouth, the knowledge that the lesion upon the limb in question
extends uninterruptedly around it, and the presence of ergotized seeds in
the hay or gr