16 'THE CATTLE MURRAIN OF INDIA. 
details. I find no record of pleuro-pneumonia. With this 
exception Indian cattle are not exempt from the many 
ailments with which we are familiar at home. 
IV. Mode of origin and spread of epizootics. 
Sporadic cases first occur, the infection spreads from one 
to several, and in some outbreaks rapidly over the majority 
of the fold. Early cases are more virulent and fatal than 
those which take place towards the end ; the disease seems 
to exhaust itself and disappears. 
It is when they assume an epizootic character that they 
attract attention; but I expect their existence in a mild 
form is by no means uncommon, as the natives appear quite 
familiar with them. Khorah and gootee have occurred 
at the same time, but have no relation to each other. Gootee 
and puschima are frequently and perhaps always associated. 
Among animals liable to these diseases are cows, buffaloes, 
sheep, goats, deer, pigs, poultry, wild animals, and even 
horses. But it is essentially a bovine malady ; neither age, 
sex, nor condition appear to influence its attack. 
Some outbreaks have occurred during the prevalence 
among men of such epidemics as fever, cholera, and small- 
pox. This only shows the existence of a combination of 
conditions highly favorable to the propagation of diseases. 
V. Causes. 
The germs of specific diseases are always extant, and 
under favorable circumstances become epizootic influences. 
These epizootics may occur at any time of the year, but are 
more common during the dry, hot months preceding the 
rains, and often die out during their prevalence. 
Malarious tracts abound, and the country is mostly flat, 
but the diseases are not confined to the plains, as they 
visited the Neilgherry and Shevaroy Hills Scarcity of 
food and water is very general during certain months; 
herds graze over miles of country where there is scarcely 
a blade of green grass to be seen, suffering severely from 
this exertion during the intense heat, and quench their 
thirst from stagnant pools that contain the remnants of the 
previous year's rain 
The true origin of these specific diseases remains yet to 
be discovered. That the/ are infectious and contagious is 
beyond doubt, but their power of propagation is liable to 
very great variations; sometimes a whole herd will succumb, 
at other times the mortality is so slight as to attract little 
