602 VETEEINAEY HYGIENE 



disease. Horse repositories, dealers' stables, livery and 

 bait stables, etc., are probably never free from it. And in 

 this connection may be noted the risk of infection from 

 railway horse-boxes, which are seldom properly disinfected. 



So intimately associated is an ordinary catarrh with 

 symptoms which are spoken of as influenza, that this fre- 

 quency can scarcely be accidental. 



Horses taken up from grass and put in stables develop 

 catarrh, or they change from one stable to another and 

 this is also followed by catarrh. In the past this has been 

 considered to be associated with a chill or some such cause 

 not always apparent. It can now certainly be explained on 

 the supposition that the organisms capable of producing 

 these diseases exist in the body or in stables as sapro- 

 phytes, only waiting for the introduction of suitable condi- 

 tions to produce infection. 



The streptococcus of strangles multiplies in the nasal 

 chambers, and from here is carried into the lymph stream. 



McFadyean's researches* show that the streptococcus of 

 strangles cannot be distinguished from an organism present 

 in a large proportion of fatal cases of pleurisy, and in the 

 nasal discharge of severe catarrh cases, especially such as 

 are met with in large cities. From this he concludes that 

 many cases of so-called febrile cold are due to strangles 

 though not diagnosed as such. 



It is a wise hygienic measure to regard catarrh, strangles, 

 certain forms of pneumonia, and influenza under its many 

 guises as all infectious, though perhaps not of the same 

 degree of virulence in every case. As to how long the 

 infection lasts evidence is required, but it has been sup- 

 posed in stallions that the poison of influenza lasts many 

 months, during which, though apparently in health, they 

 are capable of infecting mares. 



The infection in buildings is not very difficult to destroy 

 under thorough disinfection, but if the organism has a 

 saprophytic existence, or is present in the nasal membrane 



* Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, vol. ix., part i., 

 1894. 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



