512 BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



should be applied over the whole belh" and chest. The sinapism will 

 draw the current of the circulation to the exterior, the metastasis to 

 the lungs or intestines is prevented, and the enfeebled nervous system 

 is stimulated to renewed vigor by the peripheral irritation. The 

 organs are encouraged by it to renewed functional activity; the local 

 inflammation produced by it favors absorption of the exudation. The 

 objection to the use of blisters is their more severe action and the 

 danger of mortification. Septicemia, when occurring as a complica- 

 tion, requires the ordinary treatment for the putrid diseases, with 

 little hope of a good result. 



After recovery the animal regains its ordinary hcaltli, and there is 

 no predisposition to a return of the disease. 



STRANGLES. 



[Synonyms: Distemi>er, colt-ill, catarrhal fever, one form of shipping fever, Fchris 



pyogenica.l 



Definition. — Strangles is an infectious disease of the horse, mule, 

 and ass; seen most frequently in young animals, and usually leaving 

 an animal which has had one attack protected from future trouble of 

 the same kind. It appears as a fever, lasting for a few days, with 

 formation of matter, or pus, in the air tubes and lungs, and frequently 

 the formation of abscesses in various parts of the bod}^, both near the 

 surface and in the internal organs. It usually leaves the animal after 

 convalescence perfectly healthy and as good as it was before, l)ut 

 sometimes leaves it a roarer or is followed by the development ci 

 deep-seated abscesses which may prove fatal. 



Causes. — The cause of strangles is infection by direct contact with 

 an animal sufltering from the disease, or indirectly through contact 

 with the discharges from an infected animal, or by means of the 

 atmosphere in which an infected animal has been. There are many 

 predisposing causes which render some animals much more subject to 

 contract the disease than others. Early age, which has given it the 

 popular name of colt-ill, offers many more subjects than the later 

 periods of life do, for the animal can contract the disease but once, 

 and the large majority of adult and old animals have derived an immu- 

 nity from previous attacks. At 3, 4, or 5 years of age the colt, Avhich 

 has been at home, safe on a meadow or in a cozy barnyard, far from 

 all intercourse with other animals or sources of contagion, is first put 

 to work and driven to the market town or count}' fairs to be exposed 

 to an atmosphere or to stables contaminated by other horses suffering 

 from disease and serving as infecting agents. If it fails to contract it 

 there, it is sold and shipped in foul, undisinfected railway cars, to 

 dealers' stables, equally unclean, where it meets manj^^ opportunities 

 of infection. If it escapes so far, it reaches the time for heavier work 

 and daily contact on the streets of towns or large cities, with numer- 



