NATURE OF THE DISEASE. 83 



tion of tlio peculiarly distinctive or fermentative action of some 

 exogenous agencies, variable, it may be, as to tlieir origin, or 

 of some constituent of the blood which exists congenitally in 

 all horses, but to a greater extent in some than others. 



It is certainly in many respects different from common 

 catarrh, for although invading textures and organs many of 

 which are ordinarily the seat or locality for the exhibition 

 of the symptoms of catarrh, it does so in a somewhat different 

 manner, and with different results. 



Common catarrh attacks animals of the different species 

 with little apparent partiality, and animals of the same species 

 in a similar manner. Strangles is peculiar to the equine species, 

 and particularly prone to seize upon those which have not 

 yet reached maturity. Common catarrh has no disposition 

 to develop during any period of its course any peculiar or 

 distinctive eruption. Strangles is characterized in its truly 

 typical forms by the development of specific furunculoid 

 abscesses. An animal which has suffered from or passed 

 through one well-marked attack of catarrh is in nowise pro- 

 tected from further invasions of the same ; an animal which 

 has passed through a well-marked and typical attack of 

 strangles is so far protected, that although it may again be 

 seized, it is undoubtedly not so liable as others of the same 

 age which have never suffered from an attack of the fever. 



From scrofula, or scrofulous inflammation of the gland- 

 structures, it is entirely different, the only likeness being that 

 certain of the gland-structures in different parts of the body 

 are localities where occasionally both diseases may exhibit 

 themselves. Scrofulous inflammation in connection with 

 adenoid tissue is not as a rule, even when carried well 

 through, characterized as being followed by a visible mani- 

 festation of increased vigour, by an impulse being given to 

 the healthy growth and development of the animal so aftected. 

 Strangles, when passing favourably through its different 

 stages of febrile development, formation, and maturation of 

 eruption or boil, is very often followed by a visible impetus 

 or start in healthy functional activity and growth. 



There is much in the nature and development of strangles, 

 as also in the nature of the influence produced on the animal 

 which has once been affected with this disease, to induce us to 



6—2 



