202 OSTRICH-FARMING IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



the cobwebs showing out very distinctly in the morning 

 after these dewy nights. The post-mortem examina- 

 tions show violent inflammation of the lungs, but beyond 

 this the whole disease is wrapped in mystery. The 

 better condition the animal is in, and the less w^ork it 

 does, the more liable it is to take the disease ; and we 

 remember seeing a veterinary surgeon, who was holding 

 forth very dogmatically that it was nothing but over- 

 riding and bad treatment, being completely posed by 

 beinof asked how he accounted for unbroken animals 

 being more subject to it than working animals. A 

 remarkable feature is that a sucking foal never con- 

 tracts it, whilst it is said that if a dog eats the entrails 

 of one that has died of this disease, it will kill it. There 

 is no known cure, but a few recover, after which they 

 are said never to be again subject to the disease. In 

 the high parts of the colony, and on the tops of moun- 

 tains, the disease is unknown, and these are the parts 

 where most of the horses are bred. To attempt breed- 

 ing them in low lands sooner or later ends in loss. 



Glanders are often very prevalent, and directly the 

 farmer sees it in a horse he should shoot him ; but he 

 must not mistake the much more common disease, 

 strangles, for it. With strangles a horse only wants 

 to be put in a camp, and rested for a month or two, to 

 be cured. If worked he will infect other horses, and 



