AT LYONS DURING THE SCHOLASTIC YEAR 1840 - 41 . 133 
Epizootic Disease. — A malady resembling- the epizootic of 1825 has 
shewn itself during the spring and summer of this year among horses in the 
department of the Rhone. Asses and mules were exempt from its attacks. 
During the months of May, June, and July, this affection has been peculiarly 
prevalent among the horses attached to the public vehicles. Draught horses 
destined for private carriages or country work have comparatively escaped. 
In the twelfth regiment of artillery the disease appeared only in four of the 
officers’ horses. The market horses seemed to be quite exempt from the 
malady. Mares were oftener attacked by it than horses. 
The cause of this epidemic seemed chiefly to be the sudden and great 
changes of temperature and the almost continued occurrence of the north-west 
wind. The quality of the food seemed to have little effect, or rather, for the 
most part, those that were affected were in the best state of condition until 
the moment of the attack. 
We do not believe in the existence of any contagious principle connected 
with this disease. It was the influence of the same causes on animals sub- 
mitted to the same regimen and to the same work. Out of a dozen horses 
belonging to our public carriages in one hilly route, ten were attacked; one 
of them relapsed and died. 
Of two establishments, each having sixty-five omnibus horses, the one fur- 
nished us with only one patient, and tbe other with two. The close packing 
of horses in these stables seems to be nothing more than an occasional cause 
of the disease. We had not a single patient in our infirmary. 
We may, perhaps, apply to this disease the term which was adopted by M. 
Rainard to a similar disease in 1825, — g astro-conjunctiva. With the excep- 
tion of a trifling dryness and heat of the mouth, the digestive organs were little 
affected, and the greater part of the patients altogether retained their appe- 
tite. The belly was not distended ; the dejections had their usual character, 
and the gastric affection was far from predominating. 
The eyes presented the most striking indications of disease, and, for the 
most part, these were the symptoms first observed. There was swelling of the 
lids, and redness, and, in a very few cases, a yellow tint of the conjunctiva. 
The globe of the eye presented some important characters. The cornea be- 
came suddenly opaque, and was often as white as the opacity on the eye of 
the distempered dog. Sometimes the cornea preserved its transparency, per- 
mitting us to see the limpid aqueous humour with a green tint, which was dis- 
sipated in a few days, disappearing from the centre towards the circum- 
ference. 
In two-thirds of the patients there were symptoms of inflammation of the 
respiratory organs — such as tenderness of the throat, frequent and hard 
cough, a humid gurgle from the trachea, a discharge from the nostrils of a 
white mucus a little transparent, and a crepitating rale. The horses that 
exhibited symptoms of pneumonia were unable to lie down: they kept them- 
selves up, but with difficulty, and seemed as if they were every moment ready 
to fall. The pulse was small and hard. The sounds of the heart had nothing 
abnormal about them. There were no symptoms of cerebral affection. 
Generally, the disease assumed everywhere the same simple appearance, and 
it passed away between the fifth and eighth day. The termination was very 
rarely fatal. The veterinary surgeons of Lyons affirmed that they did not 
lose a single patient. Perhaps they regarded as an almost different affection 
the complication produced by the development of pulmonary inflammation. 
Out of a hundred patients that were confided to my care, three died. Two 
of them exhibited the symptoms and the lesions of peripneumony. In the 
third the thoracic organs were somewhat affected. They were enveloped by 
some pounds of serositv ; but there was redness of the stomach — a grey 
mucus of u leaden colour covering the mucous membrane of the small in- 
