MALA.DIE DU COIT. 
405 
insidious and difficult of positive diagnosis as equine syphilis in 
imperfectly developed, isolated cases, without a clear history, and 
since we now have the disease in our midst, a reliable means of 
diagnosis is certainly a desideratum. 
To this end, we should first decide whether or not thfere is a 
benign and a malignant form of this disease. 
All English writers mention two forms, relying for their des¬ 
criptions upon translations from the French and German. 
Judging from these translations it would appear that those 
authorities differ among themselves as to the existence of two 
forms of the disease, English writers, rather ineffectually, at¬ 
tempting to harmonize certain radical differences in symptoms by 
bringing to their aid climatic influences or different sources of 
origin. 
Evidently in some of these translations two distinct disorders 
are confounded, and Rodloff is undoubtedly correct in the main, 
when he asserts that the so-called benignant form of equine syphilis 
is a wholly distinct benign affection. 
In attempting to follow the writings in a foreign tongue, that 
very able and careful author, Dr. Fleming, is led into some re¬ 
markable contradictions and perplexities. In describing his benig¬ 
nant form, wdiich he asserts corresponds to the first stages of the 
malignant, he makes particular mention of abundant pustular 
eruptions on the external genital organs, and later, in describing 
the malignant form, admits that in many of the most serious out¬ 
breaks these eruptions were absent, and yet these cases must pass 
through the primary stages like the benign. 
We understand that a benign disease is one of a mild character 
not dangerous to life, wdiile a malignant disease is one which 
jeopardizes the life of the afflicted being. 
Now Fleming, discussing the nature of the disease, says: “And 
we must be content with the statement that it is an eminently 
virulent malady.” Again, under the head of course and termina¬ 
tion, he says: “ As a rule the progress of the disease is slow and 
its termination most frequently fatal.” 
Again, still under the head of “ Mortality and Loss,” after 
quoting serious losses in several outbreaks, he says, “ but it may 
