54 Stable Management and the Prevention of Disease 



found a special vegetable parasite of an algoid nature, and 

 Mr. Steel, in the Veterinary Journal for October, 1881, 

 stated that he had discovered a fungus (actually growing and 

 containing spores) in a piece of diseased matter taken from a 

 barsati sore. 



It has, however, yet to be proved that these fungus- 

 growths are the causes of barsati. It is quite possible that 

 they are the product of vegetable spores floating in the air 

 and capable of growing in any unprotected wound. I believe 

 that it depends upon some specific germ, either animal or 

 vegetable, and that flies are often, if not always, the agents 

 by which this germ is introduced into the system. My 

 reasons for thinking so are that I have never known a recent 

 wound assume the character of barsati if effectually shielded 

 from flies. I have seen the disease appear in the unabraded 

 mucous membrane inside the eyelids of colts whose eye- 

 fringes had been lost, but never in those whose fringes were 

 entire and had been kept on. For many years I made it a 

 rule to have every wound or abrasion during the hot season, 

 in horses under my charge, smeared daily with a thick mix- 

 ture of sulphur and oil, which flies greatly dislike. The 

 disease never appeared in wounds so treated. 



Some veterinary surgeons use a mixture of oil and carbolic 

 acid for the same purpose. I have tried it, but found that 

 it does not keep away the flies after a few hours, when the 

 carbolic acid evaporates. 



Others apply calico, which is no doubt effectual when it 

 covers a wound closely, but is liable to become loose, or to be 

 displaced. 



Barsati appears as a sore during the hot weather. Its 

 name implies that it comes during the rainy season ; but it is 

 often seen several weeks before the rains commence. It has, 

 however, like all wounds or sores, a tendency to become 

 more unhealthy during their continuance, when the air is 

 filled with moisture. 



In the sore itself, and under the skin for some little distance 

 around it, are hard white nodules, called kankar, varying 

 from the size of a filbert to that of a pin's point, and often 



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