650 Veterinary Medicine. 



Accepting the conclusions reached by Lignieres, we are still de- 

 barred from entering the affection in the list of animal plagues 

 proper, to be met by ofBcial restrictions. The streptococcus may 

 be an essential condition in each case of the disease, or it may be 

 one of several microbes that may act in the causation, yet the mi- 

 crobe in ordinary doses as accidentally introduced, does not prove 

 pathogenic excepting in the presence of concurrent conditions of 

 high feeding and condition, work, interrupted by one or more 

 days of absolute idleness, and the resumption of exercise. The 

 presence of the microbe is not enough to cause the disease in the 

 horse in continuous work, nor in that which is kept in the stable 

 all the time, nor even in the horse that has worked steadily and 

 then stood idle for a day, until he again goes to work. One ani- 

 mal or a few only out of a stable, are attacked, and there is no 

 such active extension from animal to animal in the vicinity that 

 characterizes the plagues proper. 



The prevention of the disease, therefore, must be sought along 

 the lines previously laid down and well understood, in the avoid- 

 ance of sudden plethora, of transient idleness during a period of 

 high condition and steady work, and of gradual restoration to 

 work after such period of rest. Similarly the treatment by rest, 

 depletion, diluents, evacuants, and nerve sedatives is still in order. 

 A new importance, however, attaches to the use of nerve sedatives 

 and antiseptics, as calculated to prove a check on the disorder of 

 the nervous structure and functions and on the active proliferation 

 of the microbe. 



The presence of the streptococcus may also contribute, along 

 with the permanent changes in the nerve structure, in predis- 

 posing to relapses or second attacks, which are so common unless 

 the animal which has once suffered is subjected to very special care. 



As a fruit of the research by Lignieres, W. A. McClanahan, 

 Redding, la., essayed internal antisepsis by J^ oz. doses of potas- 

 sium iodide. In three severe cases relief was obtained in 15 to 

 20 minutes and an early and complete convalescence followed. 

 In the hands of J. H. Kelly of New Haven, Conn., and T. S. 

 Childs of Saratoga, N. Y., it seemed to prove equally successful, 

 the first meeting with almost invariable success, and the latter 

 reporting a series of 10 successive cases, several of them severe, 

 which all recovered in from i to 5 days. The only untoward re- 



