SURRA. 529 



animals, are liable to contract this malady. In cattle, surra is a 

 mild disease. In untreated cases, it is always fatal to horses, 

 mules, donkeys, and dogs. 



Lingard proved that one attack of surra does not protect a horse 

 from a second one. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION.— Surra is met with in 

 Burma, Dera Ismail Khan district, Punjab, Bombay Presidency, 

 Berar, the North West Provinces, and other parts of the -Indian 

 Empire. Cases of it have been observed among French artillery 

 mules at Tonquin. It also occurs in Europe, North America, and 

 North Africa. 



DISEASES FOR WHICH SURRA MIGHT BE MISTAKEN.— 

 It has often been confounded with kumree ; although the weakness 

 from the general exhaustion of the one, is entirely different from 

 that due to the local paralysis of the other. The much longer 

 course of surra and the manner in which the internal temperature 

 varies, serve to distinguish it from anthrax. 



PREVENTION. — This consists in destroying the infective flies 

 and preventing horses being bitten by them. 



" The question with regard to the administration of arsenic to 

 animals at the commencement of the rains, as a preventive, in 

 districts where surra is epizootic, is one worthy of trial. A dose 

 of 5 grains of arsenic in the form of liquor arsenicalis (10 drachms) 

 given once a day in the drinking water to each animal, could not 

 fail to produce a beneficial effect, and could with safety be con- 

 tinued for a month at a time. The dose of arsenic should then be 

 gradually reduced every three days by half a grain at a time until 

 it is discontinued altogether. An interval of sev6n days should 

 then be allowed to elapse, and again the same process persevered 

 in with intervals, until the termination of the rains, or end of 

 October " (Lingard). 



TREATMENT. — To Lingard is due the great credit of having 

 devised a system of treatment with arsenic, by which horses 

 sufTering from this hitherto invariably fatal disease, have recovered. 

 Briefly stated, he begins, in the case of a full-sized horse, by giving 

 5 grains of arsenic (in the form of liquor arsenicalis) twice daily, 

 and gradually increasing the amount by half a grain in two days 

 until 18 or 20 grains are given daily. The dose may then be 

 decreased gradually as the condition of the animal may indicate, 

 to 4 grains twice a day. Giving the patient rice-water morning and 

 evening, immediately after the arsenic, will increase his tolerance 



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