MALADIE DU COIT. 
347 
It may be, as stated by most writers, that some stallions do not 
develop these primary tumefactions, but there is certainly good 
reason to suspect that, in many of the extremely occult cases, these 
primary symptoms did appear at first, but were attributed to acci¬ 
dental local injuries, such as often occur, passed almost unnoticed, 
and were soon forgotten by the attendant; months go by and the 
stallion resumes his work the following year, only to transmit the 
disease to some of the mares he serves, or by excitement of copu¬ 
lation, to develop the characteristic signs of the disease. At this 
early stage of the disease, most writers, but not all, describe 
erosions and eruptions upon the prepuce, penis and sheath, and 
some eruptions are said to have been seen in the present outbreak, 
but they were of a very insignificant character, few in number, no 
successive crops, and all disappearing quickly, leaving no noticeable 
scar. In most cases no erosions or eruptious were noticed at all, 
and in the others they were probably due, to a great extent, to 
accidental abrasions, or erosions due to contact of the discharge 
from the urethra with the eroded parts, which were usually the 
penis and prepuce about the preputial ring. 
The sheath may or may not become swollen, the swelling may 
disappear early, or may persist throughout the disease, the swell¬ 
ing when present varying in size, susceptible to unaccountable 
turns of growth or subsidence, and partaking of the same peculiar 
indolent character as the swellings of the prepuce, or may be 
indurated and hard from the presence of suppurating lymphatic 
glands. 
The testicles are in most cases unusually pendent from par¬ 
alysis of the cremastic muscle, but in some cases they lie close 
against the external ring, when greatly atrophied, or may even be 
pushed up into the ring by abscesses or indurations of the lower 
part of the scrotum. In size they may be normal, enlarged, or 
atrophied. In the earlier stages enlargement is probably the rule, 
but in the latter stages atrophy is almost constant, and when appar¬ 
ent enlargement does occur, it is generally due, not to enlarge¬ 
ment of the testicle proper (parenchyma), but to a thickening of 
the coverings of the testicle. In consistency, the testicles are 
almost always soft and flabby, with an indefinite contour when 
manipulated. 
