BOTRYOMYCOSIS 83 



tion which can be reached with the teeth the animal 

 is constantly gnawing it. 



The infection is undoubtedly carried by flies. I 

 once noted on the postmortem examination of a horse 

 that had died as the result of prolonged colic, a botry- 

 omycotic enlargement of all the mesenteric glands. 

 The glands had become enlarged to the size of hen 

 eggs and contained throughout the hypertrophied tex- 

 ture numerous characteristic granules. 



During cool weather the symptoms partially sub- 

 side and if the winter is cold enough and is not too 

 short, some cases apparently heal over nicely. As 

 soon as warm weather returns however, the infection 

 becomes active again and the disease progresses rap- 

 idly. From this the disease has probably received the 

 common name of "summer sore." Also for this rea- 

 son, undoubtedly, the north has but little trouble with 

 this infection, the winters being too severe and too 

 long for the favorable growth of the infective organ- 

 ism. 



To the practitioner who has had little or no experi- 

 ence with this infection it would appear a very simple 

 matter to excise the entire growth. Those veterinar- 

 ians who know this condition can testify to the futility 

 of this procedure. Though the dissection be ever so 

 thorough, a cure rarely follows. This is no doubt due 

 to the presence of some of the botryomyces in tissue 

 not involved in the tumor and would be a point in 

 favor of the theory that the formation of fibrous tissue 

 is due to an effort on the part of the system to wall 



