88 STRANGLES. 



and changes of animal excreta or other noxious materials, re- 

 sulting from the decomposition of other animal or vegetable 

 matter. No doubt, in many instances this seems, and in 

 reality is, a good and sufficient explanation of the phenomena 

 which attend upon or constitute the specific fever, and it may 

 be the mode through which, in numerous instances, strangles 

 is induced. 



There are, however, many cases and j^articular outbreaks of 

 the disease, chiefly those which partake of a malignant type 

 and are associated with a low form of fever, where the evi- 

 dence -and facts in connection with its appearance and spread 

 all point to specific contagium as the origin of the outbreak 

 and the medium through which it is propagated. 



However potent or hurtful may be the action of effete and 

 changing animal tissue, either when retained within the 

 animal body or after its ejection from the economy, there seems 

 as much reason to believe in the disease-producing agency of 

 poisonous material, particulate living contagia, circulating in 

 the blood of the actually diseased and given off by the 

 excretion of the skin and lungs, as well as in the morbid 

 material and changed tissue elements from the local eruptions 

 or pustules. 



This poisonous and disease-producing material will remain 

 floating in the atmosphere, and unless ventilation is suflicient 

 to ensure its dispersion or dilution to the point of innocuous- 

 ness, will find an entrance into the animal body through the 

 respiratory tract, and in this way may produce the disease. 



h. Caumfion. — It has been said that this is peculiarly a 

 disease of domestication, and that the true causes are insepara- 

 bly connected with a forced confinement in stables. It is 

 certainly true that horses located in stables are more largely 

 the subjects of strangles than others diflerently circumstanced. 

 This is as it must always be in a country such as ours, where 

 horses of necessity, both from climatic and utilitarian con- 

 siderations, must in greater numbers be stabled than roaming 

 at large. That, however, it is a disease peculiarly owing its 

 origin to enforced confinement experience Avill not endorse, 

 as it is tolerably well known that very large numbers of 

 animals so aftected have never been housed. 



Dentition has occasionally been looked upon as an imme- 



