56 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



APPENDIX C. 



THE IDENTITY OF DOURINE. 



(Annales de I'Instiiut Pasteur.) 

 Buffard and Schneider. 



Even until recently some doubt appeared to exist regarding the presence of a 

 si:)ecific trypanosome in the dourine of Europe. We have successively seen Thanhoffer, 

 Lidemann and !Marek in Hungary, and Tchernogorow in Russia declare that they have 

 not been able to reveal the presence of trypano^omata in subjects infected with 

 authentic dourino. Prof. Marek was even led by his negative evidences to admit the 

 existence of two dourines, one due to a trypanosome being seen in Algiers, the otfier, 

 of which the causal agent was still to be determined, constituting the European 

 aifection. A certain tendency to consider this double theory plausible has since been 

 manifested in some scientific circles, and in some medical literature. 



We have, from the first, held firmly that the Algerian trypanosomiasis was actu- 

 ally the true dourine or ' mal du coit,' that which was studied by Signol, Saint Cyr, 

 Trasbat, Laquerriere, Blaise, Nocard, Rouget, ourselves, and, as supporting our con- 

 clusions, Nocand, Martinet and Bremond, who carried on an experimental dourine 

 farm after examining some animals which served as our proofs that dourine was of 

 irypanosomian origin. In all that concerned the possibility of a dourine or of a Euro- 

 pean pseudo-dourine, we maintained the greatest reserve, having pegard to the diffi- 

 culty of the bacteriological diagnosis of dourine on the one hand, and to the small 

 number of inoculations or their entire absence in the apparently negative cases. The 

 facts have since, as it appears to us, solved the question both in France and Hungary. 

 In France dourine makes its appearance nearly every year upon the Spanish fron- 

 tier, in the department of the Loweri Pyrenees. The mares of the districts near the 

 frontier are sent during the summer into pastures common to France and Spain, 

 where they are served by stallions which are often affected with dourine. Many 

 owners, howeven, act as do the Araks, that is to say, that they first have a mare 

 served by a jackass, then if she does not hold they send her to a stallion. The jackasses 

 perform service on both sides of the frontier and most frequently infect the mares,, 

 which in their turn infect the stallions of the national breeding studs, or those owned 

 by private parties. Nay, more, through purchases made in Spain, mares probably 

 infected are frequently introduced into France ; the enzootic outbreak of 1903, was 

 thus caused by Spanish mares brought into France. 



In 1886, 34 mares and 4 stallions died in the canton of Accous ; in 1890 some 

 cases were observed in the valley of Aspe; in 1898 the stallion Kars of the national 

 stud at Pau infected 37 mares. In 1903 many mares had, in fact, alnsadv succumbed 

 to mal du coit when the sanitary service was advised of the situation ; it was only 

 possible to find two private stallions affected, which succumbed shortlv afterwards. 

 In 1904 the national stallion ' Lusignan,' was sent for observation to the veterinary 

 school at Toulouse on suspicion of dourine, because of symptoms which he presented, 

 and which consisted principally of an extensive oedema of the sheath and scrotem, 

 Lattenly hr prcsoutr-d on the sides, on the neck and on the croup rounded protuber- 

 ances having the character of hematomes which appeared and disappeared at irregu- 

 lar intervals. Some lameness of the hind limbs supervened, accompanied by paralysis 

 of the crural muscles and loss of power in the hind-quarters. This stallion finally 

 rreovered. Different inoculations with fresh blood were in very large doses adminis- 

 tered to dogs and rabbits, but gave no result. Microscopic examination of the blood 

 was constantly negative. This stallion having served 37 mares, Professor Leclaincho- 



