VETERINARY DEPARTMENT. 181 



complaint, so that it may be recognized by those interested in horse-flesh, 

 should it cross the boundary lines of Michigan. 



Maladie du Coit, or Dourinn, may be regarded as a malignant venereal dis- 

 ease, and as far as I am aware, is peculiar to solipeds (animals having no 

 division in their foot), though some have regarded it as the same as syphilis in 

 man, but experiment has so utterly failed to prove the assertion, that our best 

 authorities have discarded that idea, when discussing the nature of the dis- 

 ease. That it is of a contagious nature, has been proved beyond all reasonable 

 doubt, but it is stated that the virus is of a fixed nature, and that it requires 

 actual contact before the disease can be contracted. Though other authori- 

 ties say that it may be transmitted from unhealthy to healthy animals, by 

 men who handle the sick ones ; and as there is considerable discharge from 

 certain parts of the body during the progress of the disease, I think very 

 probably that it is sometimes spread by careless handling of sick and healthy 

 animals. 



The period of incubation in this disease is often very short, being only a 

 couple of days, but certain forms of the complaint are said to remain latent in 

 the system for as much as two months. 



MOKTALITY OF THE DISOEDER. 



The percentage of deaths from this complaint vary very much, running up 

 in some instances to as high as seventy per cent. It is not only the mortality 

 of Dourinn that makes it so much to be dreaded, but when we add to this the 

 trouble and expense of treatment, the length of time it takes to effect a cure, 

 and the length of time it takes to get the animal back into its former condi- 

 tion, even when it is cured, we can then form some idea how important it is 

 to prevent the disease from spreading. 



SYMPTOMS. 



As this disorder has not existed long enough in this country for us to have 

 become familiar with all the symptoms, and as I have not had an opportunity 

 of investigating it myself, I shall have to draw on those transatlantic writers 

 upon the subject, who have been more favored in this respect than myself. 



The disorder appears to manifest itself in a variety of ways according to the 

 animal affected, and also according to the severity of the attack. In some 

 the onset, course, and termination are so mild and favorable that it has been 

 called the benign form of the disease, in contradistinction to that form which 

 produces the most disastrous lesions, and frequently the death of the ani- 

 mal, and hence called the malignant form of the disease. So we have the 

 benignant form in the mare, the benignant form in the stallion; the malig- 

 nant form in the mare and the malignant form in the stallion to discuss. 



Of the benignant form in the mare, let me say that she exhibits more or 

 less uneasiness of her private parts, by whisking her tail from side to side, 

 and would give one the idea at first as if she were coming in season, but this 

 is soon followed by more evident signs of disease, for the vulva becomes 

 swollen, and the lining of it is marked with red patches, which soon develop 

 into pustules or ulcers. These ulcers soon disappear, to be followed in a 

 short time by others, and after a variable number of these crops, the disease 

 seems to wear itself out, and disappears without leaving any evil results. 



