Page:EB1911 - Volume 10.djvu/638

Rh formerly, with an ordinal number prefixed, the name of the infantry regiments of the British army. It is now superseded by territorial designations, but it still is used in the four regiments of the infantry of the Household, the Foot Guards. As a lineal measure of length the “foot” is of great antiquity, estimated originally by the length of a man’s foot (see ). For the ceremonial washing of feet, see.

 FOOT-AND-MOUTH DISEASE (Aphthous Fever, Epizootic Aphtha, Eczema Epizootica), a virulent contagious and inoculable malady of animals, characterized by initial fever, followed by the formation of vesicles or blisters on the tongue, palate and lips, sometimes in the nostrils, fourth stomach and intestine of cattle, and on parts of the body where the skin is thin, as on the udder and teats, between the claws, on the heels, coronet and pastern. The disease begins suddenly and spreads very rapidly. A rise of temperature precedes the vesicular eruption, which is accompanied by salivation and a peculiar “smacking” of the lips. The vesicles gradually enlarge and eventually break, exposing a red raw patch, which is very sensitive. The animal cannot feed so well as usual, suffers much pain and inconvenience, loses condition, and, if a milk-yielding creature, gives less milk, or, if pregnant, may abort. More or less lameness is a constant symptom, and sometimes the feet become very much diseased and the animal is so crippled that it has to be destroyed. It is often fatal to young animals. It is transmitted by the saliva and the discharges from the vesicles, though all the secretions and excretions are doubtless infective, as well as all articles and places soiled by them. This disease can be produced by injecting the saliva, or the lymph of the vesicles, into the blood or the peritoneal cavity.

If we were to judge by the somewhat vague descriptions of different disorders by Greek and Roman writers, this disease has been a European malady for more than 2000 years. But no reliance can be placed on this evidence, and it is not until we reach the 17th and 18th centuries that we find trustworthy proof of its presence, when it was reported as frequently prevailing extensively in Germany, Italy and France. During the 19th century, owing to the vastly extended commercial relations between civilized countries, it has, like the lung-plague, become widely diffused. In the Old World its effects are now experienced from the Caspian Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. Hungary, Lower Austria, Bohemia, Saxony and Prussia were invaded in 1834. Cattle in the Vosges and in Switzerland were attacked in 1837, and the disease extending to France, Belgium and Holland, reached England in 1839, and quickly spread over the three kingdoms (see also under ). At this time the importation of foreign animals into England was prohibited, and it was supposed that the infection must have been introduced by surplus ships’ stores, probably sheep, which had not been consumed during the voyage. This invasion was followed at intervals by eleven distinct outbreaks, and since 1902 Great Britain has been free of foot-and-mouth disease. From the observations of the best authorities it would appear to be an altogether exotic malady in the west of Europe, always invading it from the east; at least, this has been the course noted in all the principal invasions. It was introduced into Denmark in 1841; and into the United States of America in 1870, from Canada, where it had been carried by diseased cattle from England. It rapidly extended through cattle traffic from the state first invaded to adjoining states, but was eventually extinguished, and does not now appear to be known in North America. It was twice introduced into Australia in 1872, but was stamped out on each occasion. It appears to be well known in India, Ceylon, Burma and the Straits Settlements. In 1870 it was introduced into the Andaman Islands by cattle imported from Calcutta, where it was then prevailing, and in the same year it appeared in South America. In South Africa it is frequently epizootic, causing great inconvenience, owing to the bullocks used for draught purposes becoming unfit for work. These cattle also spread the contagion. It is not improbable that it also prevails in central Africa, as Schweinfurth alludes to the cattle of the Dinkas suffering from a disease of the kind.

Though not usually a fatal malady, except in very young animals, or when malignant, yet it is a most serious scourge. In one year (1892) in Germany, it attacked 150,929 farms, with an estimated loss to the owners of £7,500,000 sterling. It is transmissible to nearly all the domestic animals, but its ravages are most severe among cattle, sheep, goats and swine. Human beings are also liable to infection.

The treatment of affected animals comprises a laxative diet, with salines, and the application of antiseptics and astringents to the sores. The preventive measures recommended are, isolation of the diseased animals, boiling the milk before use, and thorough disinfection of all places and substances which are capable of conveying the infection.

 FOOTBALL, a game between two opposing sides played with a large inflated ball, which is propelled either by the feet alone or by both feet and hands.

Pastimes of the kind were known to many nations of antiquity, and their existence among savage tribes, such as the Maoris, Faroe Islanders, Philippine Islanders, Polynesians and Eskimos, points to their primitive nature. In Greece the  seems to have borne a resemblance to the modern game. Of this we read in Smith’s Dictionary of Antiquities—“It was the game at football, played in much the same way as with us, by a great number of persons divided into two parties opposed to one another.” Amongst the Romans the harpastum, derived from the Greek verb , I seize, thus showing that carrying the ball was permissible, bore a certain resemblance. Basil Kennett, in his Romae antiquae notitia, terms this missile a “larger kind of ball, which they played with, dividing into two companies and striving to throw it into one another’s goals, which was the conquering cast.” The harpastum was a gymnastic game and probably played for the most part indoors. The real Roman football was played with the inflated follis, which was kicked from side to side over boundaries, and thus must have closely resembled the modern Association game. Tradition ascribes its introduction in northern Europe to the Roman legions. It has been played in Tuscany under the name of Calcio from the middle ages down to modern times.

Regarding the origin of the game in Great Britain the Roman tradition has been generally accepted, although Irish antiquarians assert that a variety of football has been played in Ireland for over 2000 years. In early times the great football festival of the year was Shrove Tuesday, though the connexion of the game with this particular date is lost in obscurity. William Fitzstephen, in his History of London (about 1175), speaks of the young men of the city annually going into the fields after dinner to play at the well-known game of ball on the day quae dicitur Carnilevaria. As far as is known this is the first distinct mention of football in England. It was forbidden by Edward II. (1314) in consequence of “the great noise in the city caused by hustling over large balls (rageries de grosses pelotes).” A clear reference is made “ad pilam ... pedinam” in the Rotuli Clausarum, 39 Edward III. (1365), memb. 23, as one of the pastimes to be prohibited on account of the decadence of archery, and the same thing occurs in 12 Richard II. c. 6 (1388). Both Henry VIII. and Elizabeth enacted laws against football, which, both then and under the Stuarts and the Georges, seems to have been violent to the point of brutality, a fact often referred to by prominent writers. Thus Sir Thomas Elyot, in his Boke named the Governour (1531), speaks of football as being “nothyng but beastely fury and extreme violence, whereof proceedeth hurte and consequently rancour and malice to remayne with thym that be wounded, wherefore it is to be put in perpetual silence.” In Stubbes’ Anatomie of Abuses (1583) it is referred to as “a develishe pastime ... and hereof groweth envy, rancour and malice, and sometimes brawling, murther, homicide, and great effusion of blood, as experience daily teacheth.” Fifty years later (1634) Davenant is quoted (in Hone’s Table-Book) as remarking, “I would now make a safe retreat, but methinks I am stopped by one of your heroic games called football; which I conceive (under your favour) not very conveniently civil in the streets, especially in such irregular and narrow roads as Crooked 