44 Veterinary Medicine. 



A granular dermatitis prevails in horses, during the hot rainy 

 season, in India and Continental Europe and has been associated 

 with the filaria irritans. In our Southern States, and to a less 

 extent summer sores, showing similar characters, are met with in 

 the same parts of the same animal year after year, but the filaria 

 has not been discovered. Theobald Smith and P. A. Fish in in- 

 dependent observations found the mycelia and spores of a 

 fungus permeating the granulation tissue of Florida specimens, 

 but did not attempt the propagation of the disease by their cul- 

 tures. F. Smith and Steele had previously, in India, found a 

 brown mould fungus in the tissue, and the former inoculated 

 two horses and ten men with portions of the diseased tissue, but 

 the results were negative except in the case of one man, who on 

 the third day cauterized the wound and put a stop to the tingling 

 and inflammatory action. Hart also failed to convey the affection 

 from horse to horse. Bitting in Florida found the sores common 

 on the lips and assumed that they were affected through rubbing 

 and gnawing the sores elsewhere. In the absence of any direct 

 proof of experimental inoculation, it must remain uncertain, 

 whether the fungus is the essential cause of the disease or only a 

 saprophyte which has incidentally grown on the raw unhealthy 

 surface. Due importance should be attached to the facts that F_ 

 Smith, Steel, Druin and Renan, T. Smith and Fish found the 

 cryptogam in all cases examined, that it was present not only on 

 the surface, but throughout the substance also of the granulation 

 tissue, that the disease prevails especially in given districts and 

 particularly where the land is low and damp, and though it may 

 become dormant in winter, it resumes its activity with the hot 

 weather of the succeeding year. While it may be carried by a 

 diseased animal into high and dry localities, it does not show the 

 tendency to extend in these as in the hot and damp low-lying 

 ones. Finally improvement is shown under potassium iodide 

 ( Bitting ) . On the other hand many cases of so-called ' ' bursatti ' ' 

 in India and Europe are associated with filaria irritans in the sores 

 (Ercolain, Lemraer, Rivolta, Railliet, Laulanie, Baruchello, and 

 Gunn) showing that at least two distinct conditions are known 

 by the same name. Both forms attack horses and cattle, while 

 other domestic animals appear to be exempt. 



Distribution. In America it is especially prevalent in Florida 



