Royal Veterinary College. 
121 
cases also causes a painful flat tumefaction of considerable extent 
at the place where the mallein was injected (see fig. 2). 
The experience gained at the Veterinary College during the past 
year, and the information furnished by veterinary surgeons who 
have obtained mallein from the Research Laboratory for use in 
private practice, have amply confirmed the previous reports regarding 
the value of this substance in the detection of glanders. The 
accuracy of its indications, in view of our ignorance regarding its 
mode of action, almost deserves to be called marvellous. In many 
cases during the past year glanders was detected in horses that 
showed no external symptoms of the disease, and, conversely, the 
lives of horses that had been condemned as glandered by veterinary 
surgeons of great experience have been by these means saved. 
Azoturia or Hemoglobinuria in Horses. 
The term azoturia has for a number of years been applied by 
veterinary surgeons in this country to a very fatal disease of the 
horse. A most remarkable point in connection with the disease is 
that it has never been known to attack an animal doing regular work. 
The subjects of it have invariably been standing idle for at least 
two or three days ; but it has not been observed in horses that have 
been confined to the stable through illness. In the majority of 
cases it is found that the animal attacked has been allowed a labour 
diet although at rest. The disease occurs at all seasons of the year, 
but more cases are met with in winter than in summer. It very 
rarely attacks a horse while he is kept in his stall or loose-box, but 
the first symptoms are usually exhibited before the animal has 
proceeded far on the first journey after the period of illness. It 
attacks both sexes indifferently, although at one time it was re- 
garded jas peculiar to the mare. 
The symptoms of the disease are hardly less remarkable than the 
circumstances in which it occurs. The onset is so sudden that in 
very many cases the horse falls before his driver can get him out of 
harness or back to his stable. Before he falls the driver may have 
noticed some lameness or stiffness of the hind quarters ; but this is 
not always detected, and the driver may suppose that his horse 
has merely slipped on the pavement. When down the animal 
generally struggles violently and perspires, but it is difficult to say 
how far this may be due to pain and how far to the distress of 
the horse on finding that he is unable to get up. At this stage 
various groups of muscles, most frequently those of the loins 
and haunches, are found to be strongly contracted, and in conse- 
quence firm or almost wooden to the touch. Sometimes the horse 
urinates before he falls, and the urine thus passed, or that which is 
withdrawn by the use of the catheter after he has fallen down, is 
invariably found to be profoundly altered in colour, its tint being 
often as dark as stout or black coffee. The fatality of the disease 
is very great, at least 50 per cent, of cases ending in death within a 
few days. 
