PRACTICE IN TEXAS 27 



could usually give a very favorable prognosis for 

 eases of tetanus. 



The disease which gave me the most trouble 

 when I first began to practice in east Texas was 

 the botryomycotic infection commonly known as 

 ''summer sores." 



Some of my experiences with this condition 

 were most discouraging and I did not make much 

 progress with my handling of these cases until an 

 old practitioner "put me next" to a few things. 

 Most of the practitioners with whom I discussed 

 this disease had only a very poor understanding 

 of the pathology of it; most of them had never 

 heard of botryomyces. Some of them attributed 

 the condition to the filaria irritans. A few of them 

 ascribed the condition to cancerous processes, 

 calling it cancer. Nearly every one had a differ- 

 ent form of treatment for this disease ; and most 

 of the treatments did not accomplish very much. 



I remember one instance which occurred while 

 I was in Texas in which a very competent veter- 

 inarian diagnosed a botryomycotic infection of 

 the genitals in a stallion as dourine. I mention 

 this merely to illustrate how little even the local 

 practitioners knew about botryomycosis at the 

 time of which I write. 



One condition which I expected to find in the 

 south was insolation, or heat stroke. Great was 

 my surprise when an old practitioner in Houston 

 told me that this condition was practically never 

 seen there. Later I found this to be true. I had 

 one or two cases of "over-heating" in a mild form, 



