CONSTITUTIONAI/ GREASE OR HORSE-POX. 307 



from a horse. The disease assumed a pustular form, and extended 

 over both arms. 



In 1818 Kahlert met with this equine disease in Bohemia, and 

 confirmed the experiments made by Loy and Saccd. Kahlert noticed 

 that the joint of the foot was swollen, and moisture exuded from it, 

 and that the posterior part of the pastern was slightly red, swollen 

 and hotter than the neighbouring parts, and a clear yellowish fluid 

 with a peculiar odour escaped. At the slightest touch the animal 

 showed signs of pain ; the hair was stuck together. The disease was 

 successfully transmitted to cows and from cows to children. 



In 1860 the horses at Rieumes, near Toulouse, were attacked by 

 an epizootic malady ; in less than three weeks there were more than 

 one hundred cases. According to the veterinary surgeon, M. Sarrans, 

 the animals suffered from slight fever, rapidly followed by local 

 symptoms, the most marked of which were swelling of the hocks, and 

 an eruption of small pustules on the surface of the swollen parts, 

 which were, at the same time, hot and painful. After three to five 

 days there was a discharge from the pastern which continued for eight 

 to ten days, during which the inflammation gradually diminished. 

 The pustules dried up, and in about a fortnight the crusts with patches 

 of hair fell off, leaving more or less marked scars. The eruption 

 appeared at the same time on different parts of the body, especially 

 on the nostrils, h'ps, buttocks, and vulva. Sarrans beheved that the 

 mares taken to the breeding establishment at Rieumes had been 

 infected from the ropes which had been used in tying up other aflPected 

 animals, and had become thereby infected with the virus of this 

 disease. One of the mares was taken by the owner, M. Oorail, to 

 the veterinary school to be examined by M. Lafosse. About eight 

 days after this visit significant symptoms appeared : loss of appetite, 

 lameness, stiffness of both pastern joints, and a hot, painful swelling 

 of the left pastern joint. The hair was staring, and there were 

 vesicles on the skin, from which a liquid exuded having an ammoniacal 

 odour but less foetid than the secretion in eaux aux jarnbes. 



M. Lafosse successfully transmitted the disease to cows, and from 

 cows to children and to a horse. 



In 1863 the subject of vaocinogenic grease or horse-pox again 

 received great attention in France. A student named Amyot was 

 engaged in dressing a horse on which an operation had been per- 

 formed. The leg which had been operated on became the seat of a 

 very confluent eruption of horse-pox, which was followed by such 

 an abundant flow of serosity that at first the nature of the affection 

 was mistaken, and it was thought to be a complication of eaux aux 



