210 



England a similar disease has been called " grass staggers," due to 

 eating rye grass when it is ripening or when it is cut and eaten wbile 

 it is heating and undergoing fermentation. In eastern Pennsylvania 

 it was formerly known by the name of " putrid sore throat " and 

 " choking distemj)er." A disease similar in many respects, which is 

 very prevalent in Virginia, especially along the eastern border, is com- 

 monly known by the name of " blind staggers," and in many of the 

 southern States this has been attributed to the consumption of worm- 

 eaten corn. Professor Large attributed the cause of the disease to a 

 lack of sanitary conditions, poisonous gases, or emanations depending 

 upon defective sewerage in cities, defective drainage on lauds in the 

 country, and deficient stable ventilation. 



These reputed causes, however, are inadequate to account for so-called 

 enzootic or epidemic cerebro-spinal meningitis. It frequently proves as 

 fatal on the hills and table-lands of Hunterdon County, isT. J., Bucks, 

 Montgomery, Lehigh, and Northampton Counties, Pa., as it does in the 

 dark, damp, illy ventilated stables in New York or Philadelphia. It 

 attacks animals which have been running at pasture, where drainage 

 has been perfect, as well as animals which have been stabled and kept 

 on dry food, regardless of variation in any appreciable sanitary condi- 

 tion. It afi'ects horses of all ages and both sexes ; temperament or con- 

 dition does not alter their susceptibility. Mules are attacked as well 

 as horses, and the mortality is equally as great. There is, however, a 

 variable severity of symptoms and degree of fatality in different out- 

 breaks. 



That there is some specific cause which induces this disease is cer- 

 tain, for it is neither contagious nor infectious. Personally, I believe 

 the cause is connected with the food, either developed in it through 

 some fermentative process or upon it in the form of one of the many 

 parasitic fungi which grow on plants, grains, and vegetation. That 

 these, when they are consumed at certain stages of their development, 

 make a poisonous impression upon the brain and ultimately induce 

 structural changes is shown, I think, by the history of the outbreaks 

 wherever they can be traced. In manj- instances the outbreak of the 

 disease has been simultaneously witnessed where brewers' grains, oats, 

 and hay have been fed, which could be traced from i)laceto place, from 

 one diseased center to another. That they were the carriers, if not 

 the prime factors, can not be denied. 



Symptoms. — The symi)toms which typify sporadic or epidemic cerebro- 

 spinal meningitis in man are seldom witnessed in equal distinctness 

 among horses, viz : excessive pain, high fever, and early muscular 

 rigidity. In the recognition of the severity of the attack we may divide 

 the symptoms into three grades. In the most rapidly fatal attacks, the 

 animal may first indicate it by weak, staggering gate, partial or total 

 inability to swallow solids or liquids, impairment of eyesight ; twitch- 

 ing of the muscles, and slight cramps may be observed. This is soon 



