Remarkable Epidemic among Horses. 251 



while the consumption, whether boiled or roasted, of mutton 

 which was ever so slightly tainted with the mere germ of this 

 malady, never failed to produce the most mischievous con- 

 sequences on the human species. According to Dr. Livingstone 

 the same malignant ulcerous imposthumes were produced, if even 

 sound portions were used of the carcase of an animal that had 

 died of this complaint. These observations, founded on in- 

 numerable examples, run counter to the opinion of the French 

 physicians and physiologists, that the malignity of the poison 

 in such cases becomes neutralized by the process of cooking. 

 Considering the importance of the subject to a land-holding 

 colony, it could hardly fail that numerous individuals should 

 devote themselves to elucidating the causes of this devastating 

 epidemic ; but it must ever remain a striking and significant 

 fact, illustrative of the high standard of cultivation in Cape 

 Colony, that within a very few years 112 different authors 

 published treatises respecting this complaint among the horses. 

 The result of these numerous researches was, that the malady is 

 epidemic, but not contagious j that horses driven into the stable 

 before sunset, and not permitted to go out to pasture till the dew 

 has evaporated off the grass, are as a rule exempted from attack ; 

 that those horses which are kept at night in open pounds, or 

 in places where there are heaps of dung, take the disease in a 

 milder form than if suffered to roam at large day and night; 

 lastly, that horses for which no covered shelter can be provided, 

 may with great advantage be sent to hilly localities and dry 

 runs of land. The practical remedy which was most resorted 



