216 



an enzooty in a stable, city, or farming district, not infrequently 

 extending long distances in certain well-defined lines, along rivers, 

 valleys, or along ridges and mountains. For this reason the enzootic 

 cerebro-spinal meningitis has been attributed b}^ some veterinarians 

 to atmosj)heric influences. The first written history we have of this 

 disease was published about thirty years ago by Dr. Isaiah Michener, 

 of Carnersville, Pa., in a x)amphlet entitled "Paralysis of the Par- 

 Vagum." Several years later Prof. A. Large, of Brooklyn, N. Y., gave 

 it the name of " cerebro-spinal meningitis" on account of its simi- 

 larity to that disease in the human family. Dr. J. C. Michener, of 

 Colmar, Pa., in 1882, suggested the name of "Fungosus Toxicum 

 Paralyticus," in view of the exciting cause being found in foods 

 undergoing fermentation. In England a similar disease has been 

 called "grass staggers," due to eating rye grass when it is ripening 

 or when it is cut and eaten while it is heating and undergoing fer- 

 mentation. In eastern Pennsylvania it was formerly known by the 

 name of "putrid sore throat" and "choking distemper." A disease 

 similar in many respects, which is very prevalent in Virginia, espe- 

 cially along the eastern border, is commonly known by the name of 

 "blind staggers," and in many of the Southern States this has been 

 attributed to the consumption of worm-eaten corn. Professor Large 

 attributed the cause of the disease to a lack of sanitary conditions, 

 poisonous gases, or emanations depending upon defective sewerage 

 in cities, defective drainage on lands in the country, and deficient 

 stable ventilation. 



These reputed causes, however, are inadequate to account for so- 

 called enzootic or ei)idemic cerebro-spinal meningitis. It frequently 

 proves as fatal on the hills and table-lands of Hunterdon County, 

 N. J., Bucks, Montgomery, Lehigh, and Northampton Counties, Pa., as 

 it does in the dark, damp, illy ventilated stables in New York or Phila- 

 delphia. It attacks animals which have been running at pasture, 

 where drainage has been perfect, as well as animals which have been 

 stabled and kept on dry food, regardless of variation in any appreci- 

 able sanitary condition. It affects horses of all ages and both sexes; 

 temperament or condition does not alter their susceptibility. Mules 

 are attacked as well au horses, and the mortality is equally as great. 

 There is, however, a variable severity of symptoms and degree of 

 fatality in different outbreaks. 



That there is some specific cause which induces this disease is cer- 

 tain, for it is neither contagious nor infectious. Personally, I believe 

 the cause is connected with the food, either developed in it through 

 some fermentative process or upon it in the form of one of the many 

 parasitic fungi which grow on plants, grains, and vegetation. That 

 these, when they are consumed at certain stages of their development, 

 make a poisonous impression upon the brain and ultimately induce 

 structural changes is shown, I think, by the history of the outbreaks 



