543 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



Nervous Diseases. 



kumree paralysis of the loins from spinal congestion 



stringhalt australian stringhalt crib-biting and wind- 

 sucking shivering immobilite paralysis of the face 



• — megrims, staggers, and epilepsy sunstroke. 



Kumree. 



Horses are liable to suffer, especially in India, from paralysis of 

 the loins which comes on as a disease in itself, and is uncon- 

 nected with mechanical injury to the part. As a rule, there is very 

 little constitutional disturbance. This paralysis appears under two 

 forms: the one being gradual in its approach; the other, sudden. 

 Although the two diseases are almost identical in their results, they 

 appear to be entirely different in their nature, one from the other. 

 As the paralysis, which comes on without warning, is met with all 

 over the world, being probably due to spinal congestion, and as 

 the other seems to be peculiar to India (where both forms are 

 known as kumree), and, perhaps, Burmah ; I shall reserve for the 

 latter the term, kumree, which, being derived from the Persian 

 word, humr, the loins, means something aft'ecting that part. 



LOCALITIES IN WHICH KUMREE IS PREVALENT.— Owing 

 to the confusion which has existed in the minds of observers, be- 

 tween the paralysis caused by kumree and that due to spinal con- 

 gest'on, I find it difficult to specify the localities in which these 

 affections are, respectively, rife. There is no doubt that kumree is 

 frequently seen in Bengal and Behar. The paralysis of the loins, 

 which is very common on the Malabar coast, and which is met wdth 

 in other parts of the Indian Empire, in Burmah, Mauritius, and 

 also, I am informed, on the West Coast of Africa, is, I venture to 

 say, due to spinal congestion, in the great majority of cases. I 

 must confess that although I had formerly observed a large number 

 of instances of paralysis of the loins, among horses, in various 



