June 1, 1904.] Supplement to the "Tropical Agriculturist." 
869 
would nlmost certaiuly form around the foreign 
body, and ultimately burst, discharging the foreign 
body with its contents. The difference between 
the thorn, the thistle, or the splinter of wood, and 
the bullet or charge of buck-shot is, that the former 
carry septic organisms into the tissues along with 
them, while tlie discharge of the latter missiles 
from the rifle or gun and their rapid friction 
through the air clears them of all septic organisms. 
Should, however, a piece of the man's clothing be 
carried into the wound along with the bullet, the 
results might be very different, as the clothing 
would be full of organisms. You will notice, 
therefore, that septic or purulent matter does not 
form in any tissues, or in a wound, unless the 
septic or pyogenic organisms gain an entrance into 
the part. It is the same as we have seen with 
internal abscesses, or those which form in the 
joints, due to the entrance of the organisms 
through the open navel cord. In the same 
way the abscesses of strangles or nieuwzickte 
form between the branches of the lower jaw. 
These are due, in the first instance, to the infective 
organisms entering the nostrils of the horse and 
becoming lodged in the glands about the throat, 
where they cause the development of the character- 
istic abscesses, But we often get cases of irregular 
or bastard strangles. There are cases in which 
some of the matter from the 'original abscess is 
carried by the blood stream to the small 
capillaries cf some internal organ where they 
lodge and give rise to the formation of other 
abscesses. We may in such cases find abscesses 
in many different organs of the body, internally 
and externally. But in no case can we get 
such abscesses foimed unless tlie special pyo- 
genic organisms have been introduced into the part 
either from without through an abrasion of the 
skin or from witliiu through the circulating blood. 
Now this is a somewhat round-about way of try- 
ing to show that the cause of this somewhat puru- 
lent inflammation which takes place in the eyes of 
cattle and sheep is caused by the entrance of pyo- 
genic or pus-forming organisms into the sub.stance 
of the cornea, through some slight injury to the 
thiu delicate transparent epithelial membrane 
which covers the cornet, or eyeball. This disease 
of the eyes occurs principally during the summer. 
It has been considered probable, therefore, that 
the pollen of certain plants may enter the eye and 
injure the epithelium of the cornea, and thus make 
an opening for the entrance of these organisms, or 
perhaps carry the organisms along with them. 
But whether the opening in the cornea is made by 
the pollen of flowering plants or the infective 
material is carried by flies and inoculated by them 
into the surface of the cornea, one thing is certain, 
the matter is specific and infecliousr Consequently, 
I consider that every affected animal should be 
removed from the herd or flock, and the eyes 
cleaned and dressed regularly with an anti-septic 
lotion. As a preventive, a good plan would be to 
dress the eyes of the whole herd or flock with an 
anti-septic lotion- 
There is another disease connected with this 
group which has been very prevalent since the 
war, I refer to what is called 
EPIZOOTIC LYMPHANGITIS 
of tlie horse. That is a form of suppurative in- 
flammation of the superficial lymphatic vessels and 
glands. It closely resembles farcy, and, like that 
disease, it is readily inoculable from one animal to 
another, tlirough any wound or slight abrasion on 
the skin, and unless it is attended to and heroic- 
ally treated in the early stages, it is a most diffi- 
cult disease to combat. Of course, as it is so 
easily communicated from one animal to another 
by inoculation, that complete isolation is abso- 
lutely necessary to prevent its spread. 
Now what I want to direct your special atten- 
tion to is that all these different varieties of 
purulent inflammation are not due to one kind of 
septic cr pyogenic matter. There may be very 
little difference apparent to the naked eye between 
the pus that forms in the abscesses of strangles and 
the purulent matter that forms in the lympha- 
tics and their glands, in the infectious lymphan- 
gitis above referred to, but ohe organisms which 
cause the formation of these different purulent 
materials are quite distinct in their microscopic 
appearance, and in their physiological action and 
effects. It is the same with the purulent inflam- 
mation of the eyes of cattle; the purulent inflam- 
mation of navel-ill, the infectious diarrhoea in 
calves, and the infectious condition of the uterus 
in pregnant animals which gives rise to abortion. 
It is not by mere accident that one animal is 
affected in one way and the other in another. 
Eacli of these separate forms of purulent and 
septic diseases is due to a special and specific 
infective material, which originates its own 
particular form of disease only and acts on certain 
particular organs or tissues, and on no other. 
This shows how careful one should be to thoroughly 
isolate every case of infectious disease, and endea- 
vour to destroy all sources of infection at once. 
We all recognise the necessity of isolating cases of 
diseases, such as glanders or farcy in the horse, 
lung-sickness and rinderpest in cattle, but it is just 
as impcrtant from an economic point of view to 
take the same precautions with respect to the 
diseases which we have been discussing. Depend 
upon it, unless some effort is made to overcome 
these diseases when tliey commence, the stock 
and their surroundings become so saturated with 
the infective material, that losses arising from 
what at first appeared a comparatively simple 
matter may become very serious. 
We will now consider that large group of 
diseases of stock, which may be considered 
malarial in their character, and which are unfor- 
tunately increasing in number in Siuth Africa. 
They are a class of diseases which are caused by 
numbers of microscopic parasites which live and 
propagate themselves in the blood ; these parasites 
are carried from affected to healthy animals by- 
means of ticks or other skin parasites. Eed-water, 
or Texas fever, is one of the best known in this 
country, the carrier of the blood parasite being the 
common blue tick. Heart-water in sheep and 
goats is also known to be propagated and spread 
by the bont-tick, although the infective organism 
has not yet been discovered in the blood. The 
malarial catarrhal fever of sheep is also caused by 
