139 



MAL DU COIT — DOUEINE. 



This is propagated, like syphilis, by the act of copulation and affects 

 stallions and mares. It has been long known in Northern Africa, Arabia, 

 and Continental Europe. It was imported into Illinois in 1882 in a 

 Percheron horse. 



From one to ten days after copulation, or in stallions it may be after 

 some weeks, there is irritation, swelling, and a livid redness of the ex- 

 ternal organs of generation, sometimes followed by the eruption of small 

 blisters one-fifth of au inch across, on the penis, the vulva, clitoris, and 

 vagina, and the subsequent rupture of these vesicles and the forma- 

 tion of ulcers or small open sores. Vesicles have not been noticed in 

 this disease in the dry climate of Illinois. In the mare there is frequent 

 contraction of the vulva, urination, and the discharge of a watery and 

 later a thick viscid liquid of a whitish, yellowish, or reddish color, which 

 collects on and soils the tail. The swelling of the vulva increases and 

 decreases alternately, affecting one part more than another and giving 

 a distorted appearance to the opening. The affection of the skin leads 

 to the appearance of circular white spots, vrhich may remain distinct or 

 coalesce into extensive patches which persist for months. This with 

 the soiled tail, red, swollen, puckered, and distorted vulva, and an in- 

 creasing weakness and paralysis of the hind limbs, serve to characterize 

 the affection. The mare rarely breeds, but will take the male and thus 

 propagate the disease. The disease "winds up with great emaciation 

 and stupidity, and death in four months to two years. In horses which 

 serve few mares there may be only swelling of the sheath for a year, 

 but -with frequent copulation the progress is more rapid. The penis 

 maybe enlarged, shrunken, or distorted; the testicles are unusually 

 pendant and may be enlarged or wasted and flabby; the skin, as in the 

 mare, shows white spots and patches. Later the penis becomes par- 

 tially paralyzed and hangs out of the sheath ; swelling of the adjacent 

 lymphatic glands (in the groin) and even of distant ones, and of the 

 skin, appear, and the hind limbs become weak and unsteady. luisome 

 instances the glands under the jaw swell, and a discharge flows from 

 the nose as in glanders. In other cases the itching of the skin leads to 

 gnawing and extensive sores. Weakness, emaciation, and stupidity 

 increase until death, in fatal cases, yet the sexual desire does not seem 

 to fail. A stallion without sense to eat except when food was put in 

 his mouth, would still neigh and seek to follow mares. In mild cases 

 an apparent recovery may ensue, and through such animals the disease 

 is propagated to new localities to be roused into activity and extension 

 under the stimulus of service. The diseased nerve centers are the seat 

 of cryptogamic growths. (Thannhoffer). 



Treatment of the malady has proved eminently unsatisfactory It be- 

 longs to the purely contagious diseases, and should be stamped out by 

 the remorseless slaughter or castration of every horse or mare that has 

 had sexual congress with a diseased animal. A urovisiau for Govern- 



