While madura foot is not a disease from which domestic animals suffer, its general characteristics make it a proper subject for brief consideration. It is essentially a disease of the tropics and subtropics, and is often seen in some of our new possessions.
It commences as a painless swelling upon either aspect of the foot, in which hard nodules form, which later soften, ulcerate, and discharge puruloid material containing granules in which the microscope reveals mycelia of the peculiar fungus that produces the disease. In some cases these particles are black, in others colorless. The disease is of slow progress, and the lower limbs become weak, atrophied, and finally useless Death results from exhaustion or some terminal infection.
The principal lesion is the slowly growing gumma or granuloma, whose presence is unmistakable. This is due to the presence of a fungus, called by Vincent the streptothrix maduræ. Thus in its pathology the disease much resembles actinomycosis. The habitually bare feet of most of the inhabitants of the tropics and the habitat of the fungus explain the site of the primary lesion.
Treatment.
—The only treatment is extirpation of the growth—i. e., amputation.
PLATE VI
Tuberculosis of Testicle.
Miliary Tubercle with Caseation and Giant Cells. (Gaylord and Aschoff.)
a, seminal tubules; b, giant cells; c, caseated tubercles.