A TREATISE ON ELEPHANTS. 
external genital organs sometimes occur as a result of this dropsical 
effusion into the tissues. 
The impoverished state of the blood and feeble circulation may 
sometimes produce sloughing or mortification of a portion of the 
ears and end of tail. 
5. The digestive apparatus in like manner suffers, and in 
consequence we may find loss of appetite or depraved appetite, 
foetid breath, and not infrequently diarrhoea of a foetid character. 
6. The urinary organs from the same cause fail in their 
functions and the characters of the urine may become altered. It 
may be excessive and clear, or scanty, white, muddy and syrupy. 
7. The skin too partakes in this general alteration. We 
find it rough, harsh, scurfy and unduly wrinkled ; the hair is readily 
removed, especially that on the tail, or may fall out ; sores may 
break out on its surface and swellings occur beneath it such as an 
eruption of boils, particularly on the belly and knee joints, in the 
condition known to Indians as sukka zahirbad [i.e., where dropsy 
is not a pronounced symptom). The boils may or may not burst. 
Burmans anxiously watch for the boils to come to a head and burst ; 
if they disappear without bursting they give the animal up. 
Debility as seen in its most aggravated form exhibits a train of 
symptoms almost exactly coinciding with those recorded by many 
Indian authors under the name of zahirbad. 
Whether this is a specific disease or not as some would have 
us believe is a matter of doubt, but the very symptoms noted to 
characterize that disease are met with in cases of debility pure and 
simple. 
In many ailments of the elephant there is a marked tendency to 
glandular enlargements and swellings, and in my experience I have 
come into contact with cases of debility pure and simple which 
have advanced so rapidly that it has led me to think, as it may have 
done others, that there was some specific cause. When a number 
are attacked simultaneously, such suspicions are no doubt justified, 
but at the same time it must not be lost sight of that the defective 
conditions in general management, feeding, shelter, may have been 
shared by all and therefore all may suffer alike. 
Owners might help in clearing up much of the present obscurity 
by recording symptoms and collecting for examination specimens of 
the blood in fatal cases, the instructions concerning which have 
been fully laid down in Part V, page 283. 
Preventive treatment. — It follows from the remarks made with 
regard to possible causes, that enquiries must be made into every 
detail concerning recent general treatment and anything at fault 
corrected. Early recognition is of the first importance, and any 
