MALADIE DU COIT. 257 



Benign form, or Coital Exanthem. — The first symptoms of the 

 benign form in the mare are often so slight that they do not 

 attract the attention of the owner. They generally appear in 

 from twenty-four hours to a fortnight after copulation. The 

 animal strikes the ground several times in succession with its 

 hind feet, whisks its tail, urinates frequently and in small 

 quantities ; in fact the symptoms are those presented by this 

 animal at the period of oestrum. There is, however, this 

 difference, that no matter how often the mare is covered, the 

 sexual appetite does not appear to be satisfied. 



The first local symptoms observable are a redness of the vaginal 

 mucous membrane and the discharge of a muco-purulent fluid. 

 At first this discharge is very slight ; soon, however, the mucous 

 membrane and the lips of the vulva become infiltrated, the 

 discharge increases, at the same time becoming thick, viscid, 

 and of a whitish-yellow colour, coagulating around the vaginal 

 orifice, and on the tail, perineimi, or other external parts with 

 which it may come in contact. 



On the mucous membrane of the vagina may now be observed 

 (though not invariably) a number of small pustules, about the 

 size of a millet seed, changing into superficial ulcers, which heal 

 rapidly and are replaced by others, that, like the first, are 

 generally most abundant in the fossce navicularis, and on the 

 clitoris. 



According to M. Eoll of Vienna (quoting from Maresch), 

 during the prevalence of the maladie du colt in Bohemia, 

 vessels of various sizes, containing a yellowish fluid, were ob- 

 served on the mucous membrane of the vagina, instead of the 

 pustules just mentioned.^ 



The general symptoms are oedematous swelling of the abdomen, 



1 M. Rodloff says that the form designated benign by the authors is qiiite a 

 distinct disease, and that the exanthematous condition, when found associated with 

 what has been termed the malignant form, is accidental. Thus, what others call 

 the benign form of the maladie du colt, he calls ^' eocantheine co'itale," observed in 

 several species besides the horse, particularly cattle, and less frequently sheep 

 and pigs, while to the malignant form he gives the name maladie du colt. The 

 contagious microbe is located in the vesicles and pustules, and is transmissible 

 from a mother to her suckling by the mouth, and from her legs by the post- 

 parturient secretions of the uterus, &c. One attack does not give immunity even 

 tor a few weeks.— ( Verheien's Translation.) The distinctions between the two 

 diseases are to my mind not sufficiently clear to warrant the division. 



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