290 SCARLATINA. 



sores, altlioiigli rather tardy in healing, ordinarily assume a 

 better character as the general health improves ; they may, 

 however, from their extent, leave permanent and unsightly 

 blemishes. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



SCARLATINA — SCARLET-FEVER. 



Definition. — A pecuZm?' febrile disease of the horse, lisually 

 accompanying or appearing as a sequel to some other general 

 and debilitating disease, and characterized by the occurrence 

 of petechia} on the mucous membrane of the nose and mouth, 

 and by a mild phlyctoinoid or vesicular eruption of the skin 

 in certain situations of the body, and accor)ipanied with sore 

 throat and sivollen cervical glands. 



Patholog^y, a. General Characters, Nature, etc. — This febrile 

 disease of the horse, so named from its supposed resemblance 

 to the well-known eruptive fever in man, seems, when we come 

 to examine it more closely, to possess but a faint analogy to 

 that. In man, scarlatina is a specific disease, the result of the 

 reception of a specific virus, which is reproduced during the 

 progress of the aftection, which follows a certain determinate 

 course, and as a rule occurs only once in a lifetime. 



In the horse, it rarely occurs as an independent or idiopathic 

 disease: generally as an accompaniment or sequel of some 

 other and debilitating affection, as influenza, strangles, etc. ; 

 or when not associated directly with these, it seems to have 

 some ill-defined relation to them. I have observed that when 

 a severe visit of these eruptive fevers, measles and scarlatina, 

 has occurred in a particular locality, that some idiopathic 

 cases of this particular fever of the horse would show them- 

 selves, and that more than the average number of horses 

 suffering from catarrhal affections Avould exhibit distinctive 

 features of scarlatina. It does not in the horse seem to pos- 

 sess the power of propagating itself, only extending by con- 

 tagion or infection in so far as the primary disease with which 

 it is associated is so propagated ; nor am I aware that it has 



