In 1876 Laillier communicated to a French medical society a letter written by Lespiau describing an endemic of trichophyton disease in the cantons of Céret and Arles-sur-Tech. Thirty-four persons, including twenty-eight children, were affected. A dog was first attacked and seems to have inoculated a pig, which in these districts often lives with the human family. The pig inoculated the human beings. A moist season appears to have favoured the development of the disease. The parts principally attacked were the head, eyebrows, cheeks, and neighbourhood of the genital organs. The subjects showed considerable pruritus.
CHAPTER IV.
WARTS IN OXEN.
Warts are cutaneous tumours, real papillomata, which most commonly attack young animals such as heifers. As a rule they are pedunculated, smooth, wrinkled or deeply cracked on the surface, but in some cases they are sessile.
Causation. The cause is difficult to ascertain. It has been referred to the growth of bacteria (Bacterium porri) in the superficial layers of the skin. It is at least certain that warts can be transmitted by inoculation or through the medium of cutaneous injuries.
Symptoms. On their first appearance warts consist in hypertrophy of the cutaneous papillæ, which become covered with layers of actively growing epidermis and end by projecting above the general surface. The lesions may remain isolated, or they may become confluent or unite at their base. This form is fairly common, the warts attaining the size of a man’s fist or more.
The disease attacks the most tender portions of the skin, such as that covering the udder, internal surface of the thighs, lower abdominal wall, region of the elbow, posterior surface of the ears, etc. In rarer cases warts may be seen on the limbs.
When they extend over a considerable surface they become infected, suppurate and give rise to various complications, the most serious being pyæmia. The patients lose condition and value.
Diagnosis. The diagnosis is easy. It has been proved that warts are contagious, not only as between animal and animal, but as between animal and man.
Prognosis. Warts are not dangerous to life, but they diminish the value of the animals, particularly that of milch cows when the teats are affected.
Treatment. Leaving out of account internal medication with calcined magnesia, many medicines that are still recommended are of comparatively little value.