EPIZOOTIC LYMPHANGITIS 63 



rapidly form into vesicles and burst, forming a well-defined ulcer with 

 a raised edge and dug-out centre. They are at first isolated, but later 

 become confluent and tend to extend to the cartilage of the septum 

 nasi, causing the mucous membrane to become discoloured and greatly 

 thickened by exuberant granulations, at times forming a kind of polypus 

 which interferes with respiration and causes snuffling. In advanced cases 

 the cartilage becomes spongy and the nasal bones increased in thickness. 

 Enlargement of the submaxillary glands may, but does not necessarily, 

 as it is stated in glanders, accompany nasal symptoms; i.e. it is not con- 

 stant, and does not occur even in advanced cases. However, when it is 

 involved the gland may be somewhat indurated and stiff from suppurative 

 inflammation either affecting it or the surrounding tissues; but it is 

 generally movable, and seldom or never fixed to the jaw and knotty, as 

 in glanders." (Pallin.) 



Treatment. — Eighty-six per cent of cases of epizootic lymphangitis 

 are said to recover, but the precautions, and the thoroughness with which 

 they require to be treated, the close attention they demand, extending 

 over long periods, and the possibility of a recurrence — to say nothing 

 of the risk of scattering the disease — has placed it outside the pale 

 of treatment, and unless the horse is of the highest value we would 

 recommend that he be destroyed at once. 



From the point of view of the sanitary economist, this is the only 

 course short of allowing it to spread and to gain a permanent footing 

 in our studs. 



Captain Martin, A.V.D., thinks that stamping out the disease by 

 slaughter will not act any more quickly than stamping it out by isolation 

 and treatment, and that destruction of cases before giving them a trial 

 with treatment is in his opinion a waste of money, and the only advantage 

 he recognizes is a slight saving of a little trouble. Captain Martin, how- 

 ever, does not fail to recognize the serious nature of the disease. " Its 

 insidious method of spread due to the long incubation period, and the 

 tenacity of life of the organism together with the prolonged treatment 

 necessary for a cure, will always mark the disease as a serious one; 

 but," he says, " there should be no difficulty in eradicating the disease 

 from any stud by careful isolation, and adopting correct methods in the 

 treatment of all wounds." 



Whatever may be the result of treatment, we beg to differ from 

 Captain Martin when he says that " stamping out by slaughter will not 

 act more quickly than stamping out by isolation and treatment", and 

 as for the few pounds he thinks we may waste or the little trouble we 

 may escape by immediate destruction of the affected animals, we shall 



