4o6 Veteri7iary Medicine. 



As a direct test the French Government sent ten yearling foals 

 from the affected depot at Limousin to the healthy depot at 

 Tarbes, retaining an equal number at home as test animals : it 

 also sent ten yearlings from Tarbes to Limousin, retaining an 

 equal number at Tarbes as test cases. Then the twenty yearlings 

 at Limousin were divided, five of the home bred and five drawn 

 from Tarbes having been sent into a very low w^et country at 

 Lariviere, and the rest were sent to a high dr}' location at Mara- 

 val. The result was that but one of the ten yearlings sent from 

 Limousin to Tarbes contracted the disease, while on the damp 

 land at Lariviere one Liniousin-bred and four Tarbes-bred colts 

 suffered ; and finally on the dry soil at Maraval not a single colt, 

 from either Limousin or Tarbes was attacked. 



The other conditions that usually attach to a low, damp soil 

 are important factors. Damp air and a cloudy, rainy climate 

 are potent accessory causes. Hence the great prevalence of the 

 disease formerly in Ireland, on the west coast and in the fen 

 countr}^ in England, in Belgium, in the Low Pyrenees, in the 

 valleys of the Loire, Jura, Meuse, Mo.selle, the Guadalquivir, 

 etc., (Reynal). Such an atmosphere relaxes the .system, in- 

 duces a heavy lymphatic temperament, with coarse bones and 

 muscles, an excess of connective tissue, thick hide and hair, and 

 thick, shaggy and often gummy legs. All this implies a low 

 tone of health which will le.ss effectually withstand inimical 

 influences. 



The rank, aqueous fodders grown on such damp localities 

 have a similar effect. These are more bulky and less nutritive 

 and fail to maintain the highest tone and vigor. The animals 

 must overload the stomach and inte.stines in order to obtain the 

 requisite amount of nutriment, so that with a large, pendent 

 belh' they are still in poor condition. The case is even aggra- 

 vated when they go on the succulent grasses of early spring, as 

 the}^ continue to gorge and may even make fat, but they lack in 

 muscle and tone and in this condition even the rapid formation 

 of blood seems to favor the attack. Moller records the great 

 prevalence of the disease in Central Germany in 1884, in connec- 

 tion with excessive rainfall, inundations, and .spoiled fodder. 



Dard records that a low, overflowed meadow in the Soane bot- 

 tom near Chalons, caused blindness in nearly all horses put upon it. 



