Among Horses in India. 71 



While treating the sick horses, great care should be taken 

 to remove frequently, and bury deeply, after mixing with 

 disinfectants, any part of the flooring upon which the dis- 

 charge from their nostrils has been dropping. It would be 

 better still to burn it, where fuel can be obtained. Inspecting 

 Veterinary Surgeon Evans states that he has found the bacilli 

 of anthrax in these discharges, and there is considerable 

 reason to suspect that they may communicate the disease to 

 other horses. 



Plenty of disinfectants should be constantly used about the 

 hospital, and all the usual precautions should be taken with 

 respect to mangers, buckets, head-collars, and other gear, as 

 ■well as the stable-flooring. 



The disinfectant most easily obtained in Indian garrisons 

 is Dougal's powder, which contains carbolic acid. It is very 

 excellent, but perhaps not quite the best. Now and then the 

 chloride either of zinc or lime can be procured, and there is 

 good reason for believing them to be superior to most other 

 available substances for the destruction of disease germs. In 

 Braithwait's ' Eetrospect of Medicine ' for June, 1880, there 

 is an account of a detailed and microscopic examination by 

 Surgeon-Major J. Lane Notter, A.M.D., of the effects of 

 various disinfectants and deodorizers upon some putrefied beef 

 infusion, swarming with bacteria. Dr. Notten found that 

 chloride of lime destroyed both the putrefactive odour and 

 the bacteria themselves, no free bacteria being visible. 



Burnett's solution of chloride of zinc destroyed the bacteria, 

 but a slight odour of putrefaction remained. 



Carbolic acid subdued the odour, while the activity of the 

 free bacteria was persistent, though lessened. 



There is strong evidence for believing that the poison which 

 produces anthrax is developed in stagnant water. In almost 

 or quite every outbreak which I have seen or heard of, there 

 was either actual proof or good reason to believe that the 

 horses had been fed upon grass cut in or near swamps, or that 

 they had been supplied with water from very impure sources, 

 such as tanks where it was stagnant, and abounding in de- 

 composing organic matter. 



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