72 HORSE, SWINE AND POULTRY DISEASES 



giving purgatives unless absolutely necessary, on account of their 

 debilitating effect, but instead give laxative, easily digestible feeds. 

 Not infrequently a dirty yellowish tinge of the visible mucous mem- 

 branes has been observed, in which cases 20 grains of calomel in 

 from 2 to 4 drams of aloes in a ball, or 2-dram doses of fluid extract 

 of podophyllin, may be given. Following the subsidence of the 

 fever, a tonic should be administered, composed of the following 

 drugs in combination: Grams 



Arsenious acid 2 



Powdered mix vomica 28 



Powdered cinchona bark 85 



Powdered gentian root 110 



These should be well mixed and one-half tablespoonful given at 

 each feed to the affected animal. As hi the case of all other infec- 

 tious diseases, the healthy should be separated from the sick horses, 

 and thorough disinfection of the infected stable, stalls, litter, and 

 stable utensils should be carried out in order to prevent the recur- 

 rence of the disease. As a disinfectant, the compound solution of 

 cresol, carbolic acid, or chlorid of lime may be used, by mixing 6 

 ounces of any one of these chemicals with 1 gallon of water. One 

 of the approved coal-tar sheep dips might also be used to advantage 

 in a 5 per cent solution (6 ounces of dip to 1 gallon of water.) The 

 disinfectant solution should be applied liberally to all parts of the 

 stable, and sufficient lime may be added to the solution to make the 

 disinfected area conspicuous. (Spl. Rpt. Horse, Dept. Agr., 1911; 

 OSTebr. E. S. 22; Nev. E. S. 68; Tex. E. S. 119; Kans. E. S. 136; 

 N. Dak. E. S. 94.) 



SCALMA. 



The differentiation of the various diseases which have popu- 

 larly been included under the terms of distemper and influenza up 

 to a comparatively recent date has been so slow and so tardily ac- 

 cepted by the majority of practitioners that we have been subjected 

 to constantly seeing announced and heralded as news in the daily 

 papers the appearance of some new disease. These new diseases of 

 the populace and of the empiric are to us but the epizootic outbreak 

 or the more severely manifested form of some ordinary contagious 

 diseases. There is, however, one of the contagious fevers of the 

 horse which has constantly been confounded with other diseases, 

 and which has not been separated from them in our English text- 

 books. 



Definition. Scalma is a contagious and infectious febrile dis- 

 ease of the horse, with local lesions of the bronchi, trachea, and 

 larynx, which is evidenced by cough. It is further characterized 

 *by great irritability of temper. It occurs as a stable plague; that 

 is, in epizootic form, with, however, great variations in the suscepti- 

 bility of the animals to contract it. It is rarely fatal except from 

 complication. 



Incubation. The period of incubation is from six to seven 

 days, but the disease may develop in two days after exposure or it 

 may decay its appearance for ten days. It spreads through a stable 



