150 SPECIAL EQUINE THERAPY 



nearly always make the animal show signs of the disease 

 suspected, such as involuntary jerking of the limbs, 

 twitching of the facial muscles, and at times opisthotonic 

 position. The temperature in such cases is nearly always 

 subnormal, sometimes as low as 97 degree F., reaching a 

 degree or two above normal after the disease is fully 

 established. 



Some of these mild, doubtful cases later assume a very 

 serious turn, rimning a prolonged sub-acute course. In 

 many of them recovery is incomplete, lack of coordina- 

 tion in the hind quarters remaining for variable periods 

 of time. About twenty per cent of cases terminate fa- 

 tally. The mortality in the hyper-acute cases is from 

 sixty to eighty per cent. 



In the presence of cases of this disease the attending 

 veterinarian is not infrequently questioned by the client 

 in regard to the relationship between this disease in 

 horses and infantile paralysis of children. While it was 

 for a long time presumed that domestic animals could 

 develop and transmit infantile paralysis to human beings, 

 Simon Flexner has conclusively shown that the forms of 

 paralytic meningitis that affect animals have no relation 

 to similas diseases in humans and, therefore, can not be 

 transmitted to them. It has only recently occurred in 

 my practice, however, that a case of infantile paralysis 

 developed and caused the death of a child on a farm 

 where, two weeks previously, I treated two well marked 

 cases of cerebro-spinal meningitis in horses. No doubt 

 this must be viewed as a coincidence only. 



