34 STRANGLES 



§ 24. Etiology. Strangles is supposed to be caused by 

 Streptococcus equi, first described by Schiitz in 1888. With 

 pure cultures of this organism Schiitz was able to produce the 

 disease in healthy horses. It is fatal to mice, a maximum viru- 

 lent virus destroying life in three days. 



Lignieres, who had exceptionally good opportunities in 

 1895-96 for studying the disease, found and identified the 

 streptococcus of Schiitz. However, he concluded from his in- 

 vestigations that the cause of the disease was a coccobacillus 

 which he isolated with some difficulty. He found that this 

 organism soon escaped from the tissues but that it "places 

 the animal organism in an extraordinary state of susceptility 

 with regard to extraneous bacteria, notably streptococci." On 

 this ground, he explains the almost constant presence of strep- 

 tococci in the lesions of this disease. The results need to be 

 confirmed. 



§ 25. Symptoms. The first indication of this disease 

 is a rise of temperature. There is loss of appetite, depres- 

 sion, and often great weakness. The general symptoms may 

 continue for a few days before the localization of the lesions 

 is apparent. The first local manifestation consists usually in a 

 catarrh of the nasal mucosa or swelling of the sub-maxillary 

 and pharyngeal lymphatic glands. The nasal discharge is at 

 first serous and somewhat viscid, but in from 3 to 5 days it be- 

 comes purulent and of a yellowish green color. The catarrhal 

 condition may exist in one or both nostrils. It maj^ extend 

 into the pharynx, larynx, trachea and even to the bronchi. 

 In most cases, swelling of the sub-maxillary glands appears 

 concurrently with the purulent nasal catarrh. The swelling 

 is hot and painful when pressed. The spreading of the in- 

 flammation to the connective tissue which surrounds the glands, 

 and the stasis of the lymph in the efferent lymph vessels, often 

 cause the development, from the sub-maxillary lymph glands, 

 of very extensive swellings that may occupy the entire inter- 

 maxillary space, and may spread even to the outer side of the 

 maxilla. In most cases abscesses form. 



In exceptional cases, strangles may present catarrhal 

 symptoms without suppuration of the lymph glands. Jensen 



