298 
W. L WILLIAMS 
In 1886 two horses died, one probably of venereal disease, the 
other from unknown causes, and two were sold to California par¬ 
ties, which are reported well. 
In 1887 there remained seven horses, six of which were used 
on the Harrold & Culbertson farm and all badly diseased, while 
the seventh horse was used for stud purposes at Danvers, Ill., and 
remains sound. 
In April, 1884, Harrold & Culbertson brought from Texas 
236 select western horses, about 170 of which were pregnant 
mares, which afterwards dropped and reared healthy foals. 
These mares were then bred promiscuously to such stallions as 
were on hand in the years 1884 and 1885 ; nearly all the mares 
were impregnated and dropped healthy foals, which remain on the 
farm. In addition to these mares, the stallions were allowed to 
serve such outside mares as were offered. No signs of disease 
were noticed in 1884, but in 1885 it would appear that at least one 
outside mare and probably a few on the farm, developed the 
disease, but being wholly unheard of and unexpected, no special 
notice was taken of it until the spring of 1886, when the disease 
assumed such alarming proportions in both mares and stallions, 
that all breeding was discontinued on the Harrold & Culbertson 
farm. The objections to this theory of origin are, 1st, the stal¬ 
lions were too young to have been used extensively for stud purpo¬ 
ses and hence unlikely to have been affected prior to importation; 
2d, with the exception of VIII, XII and XIII, which were kept 
in the neighborhood, all stallions sold from the farm have, so far 
as known, remained healthy; 3d, they made the season of 1884, 
serving promiscuously a large number of mares, without producing 
the disease, and again in 1885 without affecting a sufficient num¬ 
ber of mares to cause alarm. 
A second theory of origin is by means of Texas mares, either 
from having been affected upon their arrival or generating the 
disease spontaneously by haphazard copulation. 
Spontaneous origin being wholly unknown in other specific 
contagious diseases and the past history of equine syphilis in other 
countries, where it has always been traced to the importation of 
breeding animals from an affected district, should prove sufficient 
