497 



our clients will not understand tbat all of the animals have not sufiFered 

 from the same illness. 



There is, however, one of the contagions fevers of the horse which has 

 constantly- been confounded with other diseases, and which has not been 

 separated from them in our English text-books. As this disease has re- 

 ceived no proper name in English, I shall use for it the name given by- 

 Professor Dieckerhoff, of Berlin, who first described it in the Adams 

 Wochenschrift, XXIX, in 1885. 



Etymology. — The term " scalma " is derived from the old German word 

 scalmo, scelmo, schehn, which indicates roguishness or knavishuess, as 

 great nervous irritability, especially of the temper, is one of the charac- 

 teristics, almost diagnostic, symptoms of this disease. The term 

 " HeimtucMsche Krankheit,^^ signifying malicious, treacherous, or mis- 

 chievous, is also employed in German for the same trouble. I am not 

 aware of any name in English or French which has been applied to it. 



As I am opposed to employing in veterinary medicine any of the 

 nomenclature of human medicine, except for identical, simple, and in- 

 flammatory diseases, or for intercommuuicable contagious diseases, I 

 ■will not offer the term " whooping cough" as a name, but I will suggest 

 a certain similarity between the latter disease in man and scalma in the 

 horse. 



Definition. — Scalma is a contagious and infectious febrile disease or 

 the horse, with local lesions of the bronchi, trachea, and larynx, wbich 

 is evidenced by cough. It is further characterized by great irritability 

 of temper. It occurs as a stable plague; that is, in enzootic form, with, 

 however, great variations in the susceptibility of the animals to con- 

 tract it. It is rarely fatal except from complications. 



Incubation. — The period of incubation is from six to seven days, but 

 the disease may develop in two days after exposure or it may delay its 

 appearance for ten days. It spreads through a stable slowly, develop- 

 ing at times in a horse placed in a stall where the previously sick one 

 had stood, or it may pass next to an animal several stalls away. One 

 attack is usually i)rotective. 



Symptoms. — The symptoms are ushered in by fever, in which the ac- 

 celeration of the pulse and respiration is in no way in accord with the 

 great elevation of temperature. With the appearance of the fever is 

 developed a diffuse bronchitis, which is, however, subacute both in its 

 character and in its course. At times the trouble of the bronchi may 

 extend to the trachea, larynx, pharynx, or even to the nasal fossae. 



In two or three days a trifling grayish, albuminous discharge from 

 the nostrils occurs, which continues, variable in quantity, for eight to 

 fourteen days, or may even last for three weeks. The cough is short, 

 rough, and painful, spasmodic in its occurrence and in character. The 

 slight watery or slimy discharge may become more profuse, purulent, 

 or even "rusty," if the bronchitis has extended to the neighboring 

 structures. Pharyngeal discharge may take place. The respiration is 

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