456 (xENERAL DISEASES. 



creasing weakness, and a more or less continued flow of tears 

 from the eyes. " Pain is evinced on pressure being made over the 

 loins, and on each side of the sacrum [croup]. The breath in some 

 oases is very offensive. There is continued sexual excitement in 

 both sexes. Now and then, there are dropsical swellings of the 

 legs. Occasionally, shallow ulcers ajDpear on the gums, inside of 

 the lips and tongue. Sometimes, very superficial ones appear inside 

 the nostrils, as yellow scabs, for a day or two. Successive crops of 

 blood-spots appear on the membranes of the eyes, and are charac- 

 teristic of this disease ; in that they are few, or even absent, when 

 the parasites are active in the blood; and are well marked and 

 numerous during the decline of the fever. These more or less 

 purple blood-spots are due to the transudation of blood from the 

 blood-vessels " {Steel). The blood, if drawn, will be found to be of 

 an abnormally dark colour, which fact is due to the destruction of 

 red corpuscles, the office of which is to carry oxygen for the purifi- 

 cation of that fluid. In advanced cases, the cornea may become 

 opaque, with a tendency to ulcerate. A yellow, semi-gelatinous 

 exudation takes place in the loose tissue under the skin. 



Steel noticed post-mortem in about two-thirds of his cases among 

 mules in Burma, ulceration of the stomach, which was not brought 

 on by the administration of drugs or irritating food, and which, 

 according to Lingard, is a result of surra. 



" The most common periods during treatment by arsenic in which 

 the hrematozoon re-appears in the circulation of equines whose 

 systems are under the influence of the drug, is somewhere about 

 the 25tli, 50th, or 75th day of an intermission, i.e., subsequent to 

 the disappearance of the organism from the circulation of 

 the animal. This gives one an idea of the deterrent effect 

 produced on the immature form of the surra haematozoon, and its 

 great tenacity of life ; for in ordinary cases of the surra, the in- 

 termissions between the paroxysms, rarely if ever exceed a maxi- 

 mum duration of seven days " (Lingard). 



POST-MORTEM APPEARANCES.— As a rule, there is great 

 emaciation ; enlargement of the liver and spleen ; blood-spots (pe- 

 techiae) on various internal organs ; and a deposit of a yellow or 

 amber-coloured jelly or jelly-like fluid under the skin of the throat, 

 chest, and abdomen, about the muscles and other tissues, and espe- 

 cially round the base of the heart. The lungs often show signs of 

 inflammation. The mucous membranes and other tissues are fre- 

 quently tinged yellow, on account of the breaking up of red 

 corpuscles of the blood, by the surra parasites (p. 451). "I am of 

 opinion that in all cases of death from chronic surra, or in animals 

 which have been destroyed after the disease has been in existence 



