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tliat the microbes found in the inflammatory product are the true cause 

 of erysipelas, as the disease can be successfully transferred from man 

 to animals and from one animal to another by their means. This trans- 

 ition may be direct or through the medium of infected bnildings or other 

 articles. Yet from the varying severity of erysipelas iu different out- 

 breaks and localities it has been surmised that various different microbes 

 are operative in this disease, and a perfect knowledge of these might 

 perhaps enable us to divide erysipelas into two or more distinct affec- 

 tions. At present we must recognize it as a specific inflammation due 

 to a bacterial poison and closely allied to septicaemia. Erysipelas was 

 formerly known as surgical when it spread from a wound (through which 

 the germ had gained access), and medical or idiopathic when it started 

 independently of any recognizable lesion. Depending as it does, how- 

 ever, upon a germ distinct from the body the disease must be looked 

 upon as one no matter by what channel the germ found an entrance. 

 Erysipelas which follows a wound is usually much more violent than the 

 other form, the difference being doubtless partly due to the lowered vi- 

 tality of the wounded tissues and to the oxidation and septic changes 

 which are invited on the raw, exposed surface. As apparently idiopathic 

 cases may be due to infection through bites of insects, the small amount 

 of poison inserted may serve to moderate the violence. 



This affection may attack a wound of any part of the horse's body, 

 while apart from wounds it is most frequent about the head and the 

 hind limbs. It is to be distinguished from ordinary inflammations by 

 its gradual extension from the point first attacked, by the abundant 

 liquid exudation into the affected part, by the tension of the skin over 

 the affected part, by its soft boggy feeling, allowing it to be deeply in- 

 dented by the finger, by the abrupt line of limitation between the 

 diseased and healthy skin, the former descending suddenly to the 

 healthy level instead of shading off slowly towards it, by the tendency 

 of the inflammation to extend deeply into the subjacent tissues between 

 and into the muscles and other structures, by the great tendency to 

 death and sloughing of portions of skin and of the structures beneath, 

 by the formation of pus at various different points throughout the 

 diseased parts without any surrounding sack to protect the surround- 

 ing structures from its destructive action, and without the usual dispo- 

 sition of pus to advance harmlessly toward the surface and escape ; and, 

 finally, by a low prostrating type of fever, with elevated temperature of 

 the body, coated tongue, excited breathing, and loss of appetite. The pus 

 when escaping through a lancet wound is grayish, brownish , or reddish, 

 with a heavy or fetid odor, and intermixed with shreds of broken-down 

 tissues. The most destructive form, however, is that in which pus ia 

 deficient, and gangrene and sloughing more speedy and extensive. 



Treatment resolves itvself mainly into the elimination from the system 

 of the poisonous products of the bacteria by laxatives and diuretics, the 

 sustaining of the failing vitality by tonics and stimulants above all 



