DISEASES OF THE GENERATIVE ORGANS. 481 



of the hind limbs, serves to characterize the affection. The mare rarely 

 breeds, but will take the male, and thus propagate the disease. The 

 disease winds up with great emaciation and stupidity and death in four 

 months to two years. In horses which serve few mares there may be only 

 swelling of the sheath for a year, but with frequent copulation the progress 

 is more rapid. The penis may be enlarged, shrunken, or distorted; the 

 testicles are usually pendent and may be enlarged or wasted and flabby ; 

 the skin, as in the mare, shows white spots and patches. Later the penis 

 becomes partially paralyzed and hangs out of the sheath ; swelling of the 

 adjacent lymphatic glands (in the groin), and even of distant ones, and 

 of the skin appears, and the hind limbs become weak and unsteady. In 

 some instances the glands under the jaw swell, and a discharge flows from 

 the nose, as in glanders. In other cases the itching of the skin leads to 

 gnawing and extensive sores. Weakness, emaciation, and stupidity in- 

 crease until death, in fatal cases, yet the sexual desire does not seem to fail. 

 A stallion without sense to eat, except when food was put in his mouth, 

 would still neigh and seek to follow mares. In mild cases an apparent 

 recovery may ensue, and through such animals the disease is propagated 

 to new localities to be roused into activity and extension under the stimulus 

 of service. The diseased nerve centers are the seat of cryptogamic growths. 

 Treatment of the malady has proved eminently unsatisfactory. It be- 

 longs to the pure contagious diseases, and should be stamped out by the 

 remorseless slaughter or castration of every horse or mare that has had 

 sexual congress with a diseased animal. 



