302 
W. L. WILLIAMS. 
Prof. W. Williams, in his “ Principles and Practice of Vet¬ 
erinary Medicine,” gives no recognizable description of the 
disease, while Prof. Robertson, in his “ Equine Medicine,” de¬ 
scribes it under the head of influenza as one of its forms or 
types. This view of Prof. Robertson is the one generally 
obtaining among English veterinarians, and under the head 
of influenza we find grouped in an indescribable mass along 
with this affection epizootic catarrhal fever, epizootic celluli¬ 
tis or pink-eye, with, at times, strangles and other distinct 
affections. A like view seems to have prevailed among vet¬ 
erinarians in general in continental Europe until a very re¬ 
cent date. In 1881, however, Dieckerhoff described this af¬ 
fection as a distinct specific malady under the name of influ¬ 
enza pectoralis, while grouped under influenza as one of its 
types the disease was reasonably well described as early as 
the third decade of the present century. 
The literature consulted in the preparation of this paper, 
and to which indebtedness is acknowledged, is the above cited 
contribution from Dr. Fleming, Dieckerhoff’s “ Manual of Spe 
cial Pathology and Therapeutics,” and Friedberger and Froh 
ner’s “ Special Pathology and Therapeutics.” The malady is 
commonly known to the Germans as brustseuche or chest 
plague, to the French as bilious pneumonia. It is a specific con 
tagious disease of the horse, and, so far as I can find, has beer 
recorded in no other solipeds or other animals. The patho 
genic germ has not been identified to complete satisfaction 
Schutz, Peterlein, Mendelsohn, Perroncito and other: 
have found in the affected lungs spherical or oval bacteria 
usually as diplococci, rarely in chains, which are believec 
to be the essential germ. Schutz made pure cultures of th< 
germ, which destroyed mice and produced gangrenous pneu 
monia. In some cases, also, he seems to have rendered horse 
immune by the inoculations. Lustig describes a differen 
micro-organism from that of Schutz, with pure cultures, c 
which he reports having readily induced the disease in horse 
which were afterward immune. Intra-venous inoculation 
with warm blood were followed by negative results in th 
hands of Dieckerhoff. The same result followed experiment 
