28
Cutaneous Eruptions in Rinderpest [VOL. XVIII, PART I,
Page 75. (Evidence of T. L. Taylor, Superintendent, Municipal Gaokhana, Calcutta). '
eruption in some cases occurring generally on the loins, fore shoulders, but not on the belly. The
eruption is dry, and in passing the hand over the skin it feels like hard pimples. In some cases I
have altogether failed to detect eruptions or pimples of any kind in any place
Cattle show-
ing an eruption generally die more rapidly than those which have none.
Page 84. (Evidence of Brojo Kishore Ghose, 25, a resident of Korojolee near Diamond Harbour,
District 24-Parganas.) Generally speaking, in sporadic form, or in those cases occurring at a time
when the disease has not assumed an epizootic form, very often the cattle affected do not entirely
lose their appetite and do not, as a rule, purge, but in such cases eruptions on the skin are almost
sure to make their appearance. The animal generally gets well. When purging takes place and
there is no eruption it is nearly always fatal.
Page 97. (Information given by three residents of Dowlat Dyar, District Nadia, Bengal.)
in some cases an eruption appears on or about the seventh day (one or two days after
diarrhoea), at first in the form of spots, and the skin peals off.
Page 137. (A notice of bussanto by Mr Lamb, Civil Surgeon, Dacca, in a letter dated 1836 to
the Superintending Surgeon of the Circle). On the fifth day (of the fever) the eruption appears about
the udder, sometimes only a few pustules, at other times, they are numerous and confluent ; but
the result does not seem much dependent on the eruption. Whether the pustules are numerous
or rare, the disease is almost equally fatal
When the hair is rubbed off after the pustules
have appeared on the udder, the skin is found covered with sores ; many die before the eruption
makes its appearance.
Page 196. (Extracts from records of Medical Department, Lohardugga District, Chhota Nagpur.
A letter from W. Dunbar, Assistant Surgeon, Dorunda, dated March 1836.)
towards the
close of the disease in such cases (i.e., which recover) an eruption breaks out over the skin, of a reddish
dusky colour, each spot or pustule being about the size of a split pea. The eruption, as the animal
gets well, generally disappears.
Similar evidence was available concerning the Central Provinces, Sind and South India (Canara).
FREQUENCY OF APPEARANCE
From the foregoing résumé of literature it will be seen that while some observers found the erup-
tions to be rare or uncommon, there are many others, notably Curasson, who regard them as a more
or less constant feature of the disease appearing almost as commonly as other symptoms like mouth
lesions and diarrhoea. Gärtner (loc. cit.) observed generalized exanthema in 60 to 80 per cent of
affected animals. From the fact that skin eruptions are seldom reported from most parts of India,
where epizootics of different dimensions break out practically every year, the experience of this
country would place the frequency as very low indeed. At any rate, the eruptions, if they develop,
do not appear generally to do so in sufficient numbers and severity to attract attention. In Bengal,
on the other hand, they seem to have been observed comparatively frequently, though here again
there is some difference of opinion with regard to their frequency. The experience gained in the
past few years shows that they are not a common feature, as most of the animals examined during
a number of outbreaks of rinderpest failed to show any eruptions. During the period 1941-1945,
the eruptions were noticed in nearly twenty outbreaks, out of several hundreds, in different parts of
the Province.
It must, however, be recognized that, on account of their minute size in the earlier stages and
the more or less hairy coat of cattle, the eruptions are liable to be missed in most cases, unless specially
looked for particularly when they appear in small numbers only. Moreover, a large proportion of
the animals affected with rinderpest in India die before any skin eruptions are detected fully.
DESCRIPTION AND COURSE OF THE ERUPTIONS
Among the western writers, the eruptions have been well described by both Gerlach and Curasson.
As these descriptions are in German and French and not available to most field workers in India,
some relevant translated extracts are given below.