80 Stable Management and the Prevention of Disease 



stagnant water which the horses drink, but thinks that it 

 exists there in a different form, for none could be found in 

 the water of the same shape as those in the blood, and when 

 some of the latter containing the living parasites was mixed 

 with well-water, the animals died and were decomposed, after 

 which, injection of the water under the skin, and giving 

 it to drink, equally failed to produce the disease in healthy- 

 horses. 



Dog Inoculated. 



When the blood of a diseased horse was injected under the 

 skin of a dog, the latter became very ill, and his blood was 

 found swarming with the parasites, but he afterwards re- 

 covered. 



Causes of Disease. 



The disease usually commences as an epizootic in August, 

 and continues until January, when it suddenly ceases. 



Carbolic acid administered internally had no good effects 

 upon the sick horses, and Dr. Evans suggests no cure. He 

 thinks the only means likely to prevent the disease is, either 

 to boil the water, or ensure its being obtained from a pure 

 source ; but he appears to be not quite certain that the water 

 is the cause, though he found that in almost every place 

 where horses were affected it was stagnant and impure. 



Hydrocele. 



Very bad cases of hydrocele are sometimes seen in India, 

 the quantity of fluid in the scrotum increasing in the hot 

 season and diminishing in the cold. Now and then the 

 scrotum becomes so distended as to impede a horse's move- 

 ments. 



When a disease of this kind has lasted for some time, the ab- 

 dominal rings are liable to be so relaxed that the intestine can 

 easily slip through as soon as the fluid is removed. If, there- 

 fore, it be thought necessary to castrate a horse affected with 

 chronic hydrocele, the safest way of doing so is by the covered 

 operation, wooden clams being applied without caustic, in 



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