HORSE SICKNESS. 477 



TREATMENT. — 1 have obtained good results from the ad- 

 ministration of an ounce of oil of turpentine in half a pint of 

 linseed oil, every hour for four or five times. Or we may give, as 

 recommended by Colonel Fred Smith, an omice of carbolic acid in 

 a (juart of water, and a drachm in a proportionate amount of 

 water every hour afterwards, as may be required. We may inject 

 under the skin (p. 633), at various points where the swellings 

 appear, a solution of carbolic acid and water, 1 to 40. 



South African Horse Sickness. 



I have seen several cases of this disease during a tour I made 

 through Cape Colony, Orange River Colony, the Transvaal, and 

 Natal, in 1891 and 1892. 



DEFINITION.- — " Horse sickness " is an infective disease, which 

 is characterised by intense congestion of the blood vessels, with 

 grave alteration of the blood, so that there is an escape from the 

 blood vessels of a large quantity of the watery portion of the 

 blood into various tissues. 



VARIETIES. — The two ordinary forms of horse sickness are : 

 the lung form (Dutch, clun-yaardzieMe), which is the most common 

 kind; and "Thick head" (Dutch, DikkoiJ-ziehte). The manner in 

 which the effusion is localised constitutes the only difference 

 between these two forms, which more or less run into each other. 

 " Blue tongue " (Dutch, Blautong) is a third form, which may be 

 regarded as a variety of dikkop. 



THE PERIOD OF INCUBATION is about eight days, with 

 l^robably a variation of about one day, one way or the other. 



SYMPTOMS.— Dr. Edington, Director of the Colonial Bacterio- 

 logical Institute, Cape Colony, who is the great authority on this 

 subject, states that the first symptom of the lung form of horse 

 sickness is a shivering fit, with a rise of temperature up to 103.1° 

 F. in the evening ; that the temperature next morning is lower, 

 though not quite normal, and rises still more in the evening; and 

 that it thus steadily, though slowly, increases until within a few 

 hours of death, when it may fall below the normal standard. 

 Before this fall, the temperature reaches to a considerable height. 

 As a rule, the appetite is well maintained up to the last day. 

 Towards the end, there is great congestion of the blood vessels; 

 the mucous membrane of the eyes and nose assumes a dark red 

 colour : and a copious interlobular effusion takes place in the 



