REPORT ON DOURINE. 



Mares of most breeds are more liable to acute Dourine than 

 stallions. 



The mortality is greater in mares than in horses'. 



The progress of Dourine is more rapid in mares than in stallions, 

 and the disease runs a more rapid course in imported than in 

 country-breds. 



Some country-bred tatoo mares appear to resist repeated in- 

 oculation of infective Dourine blood, exhibiting an exactly similar 

 resistance to the ' contagium ' that the majority of donkey mares 

 do, 



Section VII MEANS BY WHICH THE DISEASE MAY BE 

 PROPAGATED. 



Dourine is transmitted during the act of coition from stallions 

 to mares and from mares to stallions. It stands to reason, there- 

 fore, that the disease is disseminated chiefly by stallions, although 

 the horse must, as a general rule, contract the disease from a mare 

 in the first instance. It is stated that an infected stallion may be 

 the means of conveying the disease to the great majority of mares 

 covered by it during a season. It must, however, be clearly recog- 

 nized that there is a possibility that the disease may be conveyed 

 from animal to animal by the use of soiled stable gear. In the course 

 of the experiments, the results of which are now put on record, the 

 disease has been contracted spontaneously by eix mares covered by 

 three infected stallions, a positive result having been obtained in each 

 instance. Further, two mares contracted the disease when inoculated 

 on the vulva with a trace of blood drawn from a cutaneous plaque. 

 In this country, "the land of flies," the spontaneous mode of propa- 

 gation of the disease from equine to equine does not exhaust the 

 resources of Nature. The trypanosoma, the " materies morbi " 

 of Dourine, is present in the mature and developmental forms not 

 ouly in the blood and fluids of the numerous large plaques which 

 appear on the cutaneous surface of the body in the affected stallion 

 and mare alike, but also in the blood of the general circulation 

 during long periods at a stretch. It has been found possible to 

 convey to certain species of flies (Tabanus Tropicus, Hippo&oscides 



CuUddcz) allowed to suck blood from a_n affected animal, tlje 



