Among Horses in India. 55 



containing gritty matter composed of crystals, apparently 

 uric acid and phosphate of lime. 



About the year 1873 I sent some kankar to the Govern- 

 ment chemical examiner at Eoorkee, in India ; but he failed 

 to discover its nature or composition. 



In 1878 I forwarded a considerable quantity in a bottle to 

 Mr. Fleming, who handed it over to the Brown Institution. 



Dr. Thin, who examined it, stated that it appeared to be 

 merely composed of masses of cell concretions, but he could 

 detect nothing parasitic about it. 



The germs of the disease, whatever they may be, seem to 

 exist in the kankar ; for I have found that if every particle of 

 it is entirely eradicated from the sore during the first year 

 after it appears, the wound will heal readily, and the horse 

 will be no more liable to the disease than if he had never 

 been affected. 



If the wound be neglected or improperly treated during 

 the first year, the germs are liable to be absorbed and carried 

 to various parts of the body, and the horse may be subject to 

 the disease for the rest of his life. In old cases I have seen 

 lumps of kankar embedded in the substance of the lungs 

 a quarter to half an inch under the surface of the pleurse. 

 Similar pieces have been found by others in the liver and 

 various parts of the body. They do not appear ever to cause 

 ulceration or even the slightest irritation in the tissues sur- 

 rounding them when situated internally. 



Without any treatment whatever, the sores, if not very 

 large, heal over spontaneously during the cold weather ; but 

 when nodules of kankar are left in them, they almost 

 invariably break out afresh every year during the hot 

 season. 



When neglected they sometimes spread to a terrible extent, 

 until they form raw surfaces a foot or more in diameter. 

 They do not seem to give much pain or cause an animal to 

 fall away in condition. 



Very bad cases of barsati were common amongst the 

 Government brood mares belonging to the late Bengal studs, 

 when left in charge of the native farmers. 



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