468 GE^^EKAL DISEASES. 



part. It is sometimes accompanied by blood-poisoning (p. 532), 

 and is then usually called bastard strangles. 



It may attack horses of any age; but is chiefly seen in those 

 which are under six years old. It rarely affects the same animal 

 twice. In these respects, and from the fact that a large proportion 

 of colts and fillies suffer from it, it may be said to bear the same 

 relation to the horse as distemper does to the dog; or measles, 

 to man. Bad sanitary conditions, especially the crowding of 

 young stock, certainly favours its spread. The probability of 

 escape is entirely a question of infection, which camiot occur unless 

 the specific disease genu be present. 



Jonsson states that strangles is unknown in Iceland. 



NATURE OF THE DISEASE.— Strangles is caused by the 

 streptococcus of Schlitz. 



SYxMPTOMS OF UNCOMPLICATED STRANGLES.— The horse 

 is dull, off his feed, and feverish ; the internal temperature being 

 generally about 103*^ F. ; or a little higher. "The first local 

 symptoms are an acute catarrh (running) from the nose, the mucous 

 membrane of which is uniformly red and covered with blood-spots. 

 It secretes a discharge which at first is watery or sticky; but 

 becomes thick (from the presence of mucus) from the third day, 

 and changes into^ whitish-grey or greenish-yellow later on. This 

 pus-containing catarrh almost always issues from both nostrils; 

 but is sometimes more from one side than the other. It is 

 abundant in young subjects; but may be hardly noticeable in 

 old ones. In very mild cases the attack becomes aborted, the 

 course of the disease recedes, and abscesses do not form in the 

 glands ; but in the majority of instances, the discharge of pus from 

 the nostrils is accompanied by a hot and very tender swelling of 

 the glands between the branches of the lower jaw" (Friedherger 

 and Frblmer). As a rule, this abscess comes to a head in about 

 ten days. There is, generally, cough, and more or less difficulty 

 of breathing on account of the swelling. In simple strangles, there 

 is only one tumour, which, as a rule, is clearly defined. The 

 abscesses, in all cases of strangles, are connected with glands. On 

 various occasions, I have seen the glandular inflammation manifest 

 itself first in the parotid glands (the glands which, on each side, 

 extend from a little below the ear to the angle of the lower jaw), 

 and later on in the submaxillary glands, which are situated in the 

 space between the angles of the lower jaw, and which are the usual 

 seat of the swelling in strangles. In such cases, the parotid 

 abscess or abscesses (according as one or both sides were attacked) 

 burst close to the joint of the jaw, just below the root of the ear; 



