458 • GENEEAL DISEASES. 



sites have been given in water by the mouth, symptoms of surra 

 may not appear for even 75 days. We have no exact data to deter- 

 mine the time required for the disease to become manifest from 

 drinking, under natural conditions, surra-contaminated water. 



DURATION OF THE DISEASE.— Gunn states that the average 

 duration of the disease is about 52 days. 



LIABILITY AND CHANCES OF RECOVERY.— Horses, mules, 

 donkeys, cattle, dogs, elephants, monkeys, camels, and other 

 animals, are liable to contract this disease. In cattle, surra is a 

 mild disease. In untreated cases, it is always fatal to horses, mules, 

 donkeys, and dogs. 



Lingard has proved that one attack of surra does not protect a 

 horse from a second attack. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION.— Surra is met with in 

 Burma, Dera Ismail Khan district, Punjab, Bombay Presidency, 

 Berar, the North West Provinces, and other parts of the Indian 

 Empire. Supposed cases of it have been observed among French 

 artillery mules at Tonquin. Accepting the theory which is at 

 present being investigated by Bmce and Lingard, as to its identity 

 with tsetse-fly disease (p. 459), it is found throughout a large por- 

 tion of Central Africa. R. Kock has seen it in German East 

 Africa ; and Rouget in Algiers. Under the name of Trial de caderas 

 (disease of the haunches) Dr. Elmassian describes a disease which 

 occurs among horses in Paraguay, and which is due to an organism 

 similar to the trypanosoma of surra. 



DISEASES FOR WHICH SURRA MIGHT BE MISTAKEN.— 



It has often been confounded with kumree ; although the weakness 

 from the general exhaustion of the one, is entirely different from 

 that due to the local paralysis of the other. The much longer 

 course of surra and the manner in which the internal temperature 

 varies, serve to distinguish it from anthrax. 



PREVENTION. — The best way to prevent the occurrence of 

 surra among horses in countries in w'hich it exists is : (1) to see 

 that their water supply is pure. (2) To avoid giving them grass 

 or hay taken from marshy or inundated ground. (3) To ex- 

 clude the excrement of rats, bandicoots, and mice from the grain, 

 which, if this precaution cannot be carried out, should be parched. 



(4) To prevent horses grazing or drinking water along the roads. 



(5) To have the stables on high ground. There is some reason to 

 think that exposure to cold and draughts predisposes a horse to 



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