324 LEECHES 



Cuban and Texan ponies are as a rule exempt. Anderson 

 states that it is the coarsely bred and hard-worked horses that 

 are the most susceptible. The well-bred ones, having the ad- 

 vantage of good hygienic surroundings, rarely contract it. 



§ 246. Geographical distribution. Bursattee has been 

 reported from Burmah and Hindoostan. It is thought that 

 the prevalence of the disease is associated with the principal 

 river systems of India. In the hilly, rocky and consequently- 

 drier districts there is a very noticeable diminution or absence 

 of it. 



Outside of India there seem to have been no cases of this 

 malady reported except in the United States, unle.ss upon fur- 

 ther investigation certain mycotic diseases which have been 

 described in Europe should prove to be identical with it. 



Lyford (1866) reported it in Minnesota, Anderson, (1889) 

 in Kansas and Alabama, and Neal fiSSy) and Bitting (1894) 

 in Florida. The latter writer states, that it is "now known 

 all over the United States except in that region lying east of 

 the Alleghany mountains and north of the Potomac river." A 

 few cases have been presented for treatment in the clinic of the 

 New York vState Veterinary College. 



§ 247. Etiology. A summary of the literature shows 

 that among the old theories "leeches'" was believed to be a 

 blood disease in many ways not unlike syphilis, scrofula and 

 farcy. The "fly theory" of the causation and dissemination 

 of bursattee was entertained by the natives of India as early as 

 1820. Jackson, in 1842, seems to have been the first to 

 believe that there was any connection between the disease and 

 a fungus. 



Jackson suggested, in 1842, that the disease might be re- 

 lated to a fungus or to a vegetable parasite. Collins, in 1874, 

 expressed a similar belief, F. Smith, in 1879 and 1884, 

 seems to have been the first to have worked along this line. 

 He was able to find fungi in every fresh specimen of the 

 sores that he examined. Steel, in 1 881, also found fungal ele- 

 ments in these sores. T. Smith, in 1893, examined some 



