THE 
• .. . 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. IV. 
OCTOBER, 1831. 
No. 46. 
(ffommumratioiifS anli (Cases. 
A is veterinaria post medicinam secunda est.— Vegetius. 
ON THE INDIAN BURUSATEE. 
_ * 
By Mr , John Tombs, F.S.* Bengal Artillery . 
BURUS signifies, rain ; burnu, to rain; burusana, rainy; 
burusat, weather , rains ; burusatee, a disease in horses , in India, 
supposed to be a specific disease affecting the superficial absorb¬ 
ents of the body, and sometimes the deeper-seated ones, the com¬ 
mon integuments, cellular membrane, and eventually the lungs; 
the lungs become tuberculous, though very rarely. It appears to 
be a kind of spurious farcy. 
Causes. —With regard to the causes of this inveterate malady 
I can say but little; they are exceedingly obscure. It invariably 
takes place at the commencement of the periodical rains; I have 
known it attack horses as early as March, but then a large quan¬ 
tity of rain fell the preceding month. Some people say that they 
have traced its origin down to Arab blood. Horses of a mun- 
grel breed are highly susceptible of this disease: horses whose 
sires are Arabians, and dams country bred mares. The Honour¬ 
able Company’s stud-bred horses are most of all subject to it. 
English and thorough-bred country horses are least of all liable 
to it. It has been said to be a disease of poverty, but experi¬ 
ence has taught me otherwise, for I have seen horses of all ages, 
all sizes, all colours, all conditions and constitutions, attacked with 
burusatee. I have observed that thin-skinned horses are more 
frequently affected with it than others, which proves, in some 
measure, that it originated in high-bred horses; and also favours 
the opinion of those that traced its origin to Arab blood. I should 
not omit to mention here, that we have several English thorough¬ 
bred stallions imported annually; country-bred horses are covered 
by them, the offspring of which are more prone to this disease than 
any other race of horses in India: this I can prove by facts. By 
referring to my case-book for 1830, I perceive that I had twenty- 
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