490 KEPOUT OF THE BUKEAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



"MALADIE DE COIT," OR VENEREAL DISEASE OF HORSES. 



In tlie early part of July, 1887, Dr. James Law, inspector of the 

 Bureau of Animal Industry, attended a meeting of owners and 

 breeders of horses at Clinton, 111. , which was called for the purpose 

 of devising means for the suppression and eradication of maladie 

 de coit (venereal disease of horses), which was prevailing to an alarm- 

 ing extent among equine animals in De Witt and adjoining coun- 

 ties in that State. While at this point he' made quite a thorough in- 

 vestigation as to the character of this outbreak and the extent to 

 which the disease prevails among horses in the locality above indi- 

 cated, the results of which he embodies in the following report: 



I left Chicago on the night of July 6, and reached Bloomington, McLean County, 

 next morning, where I saw in the stables of Dr. Williams 3 Norman draught stal- 

 lions, the property of Harold & Culbertson, of Wapella, De Witt County, and in the 

 advanced stages of the venereal disease. These, in company with 16 others, were 

 imported by their present owners in 1884. 



1 next went to Wapella and drove out to Mr. Carle's, where I found a gray stallion 

 of the same importation in a still more advanced stage of the disease, showing, 

 beside the local lesions, considerable hebitude and paraplegia. 



From there I proceeded to the farm of James Somerville, of Wapella, where I 

 saw a mare which had been bred to the Carle horse in 1886, but seemed well till bred 

 again April, 1887, to the black stallion of Mr. Fischer, Clinton, which she is charged 

 with having infected. This mare is at present badly affected. She had already 

 the characteristic white spots around the vulva before being bred to the Fischer horse, 

 showing that she had already suffered from the specific disease. 



I next visited another farm to see a mare alleged to have recovered. She showed 

 in a marked condition the characteristic white patches around the vulva, and in the 

 trot manifested an imperfect co-ordination of movement of the muscles of the hind 

 limbs. Yet we found her doing good work in a mower, and in the absence of a 

 very careful examination she would not have been at all suspected. 



From this point I drove to Clinton, where, in the hands of Dr. Morin, I found 2 

 more Harold & Culbertson stallions under treatment, and both badly diseased. 



In the village of Clinton I also saw 2 stallions of Mr. Fischer, one a brown horse, 

 suffered in 1884 from a disease of the generative organs which incapacitated him 

 for breeding for an entire year, but he has now apparently recovered. This horse 

 bears on the left side of the neck at the root of the mane a D brand (Dourin?) which 

 he is said to have had when imported from France. The second Fischer horse is 

 black, excessively ' fat, with some swelling of the sheath and of the orifice of the 

 urethra, and to a slight extent^ along the abdominal veins, but is full of life and 

 energy. This is the horse that is supposed to have been infected by the Somerville 

 mare referred to above. 



Diagnosis. I have omitted symptoms in referring to the above, and shall only 

 now enumerate such as identify the disease with the maladie de coit, or venereal 

 disease of horses, of the Old World. 



In the mildest cases in stallions there is only some little swelling of the sheath or 

 scrotum, or of the testicles (primarily of the posterior pointed end). If more ex- 

 tended, swellings appear along the lines of the lymphatics accompanying the abdom- 

 inal or saphena veins, on one or both sides, and often appearing intermittently. 

 Accompanying these are the minute extravasations or exudations in the skin which 

 result in destruction of the pigmentary layer and the formation of white spots one- 

 fourth to one-half an inch in diameter, but at times becoming confluent and form- 

 ing considerable patches. In other cases the sheath remains enormously swollen and 

 the penis pendulous from 4 to 18 inches, and in the worst cases apparently incapa- 

 ble of retraction. A scurfy, dry, and even chapped condition of the penis is com- 

 mon, and a puffy swelling of the circular ring near the base of its free or protracted 

 portion is especially so. I saw no especial swelling of the glands as described in 

 books. The testicles are often greatly swollen, rounded, and pendent, measuring as 

 much as 18 inches and 2 feet in circumference. Along the course of the lymphatics 

 in differents parts of the skin and subcutaneous tissues are somewhat flattened and 

 round or elliptical exudations or neoplasms, which occasionally burst and discharge 

 a purulent matter. This suppuration sometimes takes place in the sheath or scrotum 

 and with the discharge there comes a material though temporary amelioration of 

 the symptoms as testified by Mr. Culbertson, a close and intelligent observer. Swell- 

 ing of the submaxillary lymphatics occurs sooner or later, and in the advanced 



