INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE, ETC., ON THE DISTRIBU'J 
riON & CHARACTER OF DISEASE. 695 
Others attribute the disease to food, and since it reaches its 
,, ig est prevalence in the chief corn-producing states, maize is 
largely held responsible for its prevalence. There is good reason 
or believing this food to be an important factor in its cause, but 
not 111 itself sufficient to bring it about, or at least it fall’s far 
short of being- a chief or essential cause. 
The disease is not uncommon in many regions in this country 
where corn is rarely fed, and appears frequently in England and 
continental Europe where corn is not fed at all. 
Neither is corn fed along the low Pacific Coast, where the 
disease prevails. It is har'd to determine under these conditions 
1 00a can ever suffice to produce the disease, or if the great 
prevalence of the disease in the chief maize territory is a mere 
coincident. 
That temperature and more especially altitude and humidity 
exert a powerful influence upon the occurrence of this disease 
there can be no doubt. 
. Dr * Clement s, Baltimore, Md., suggests yet another element 
in the causation of this disease worthy of careful consideration, 
and in older that I may give you his views clearly, I quote his 
words. * “ There is an affection from casual observation identical 
with specific ophthalmia, but which is infectious beyond doubt, 
and which attacks horses without history of what we call specific 
ophthlmia— sudden attack of conjunctivitis, followed in a few 
outs with acute intis and pus in the anterior chamber. Disease 
amenable to treatment by rest, counter-irritation and atropia 
injections. If not attended to, apt to be followed by adhesion of 
ins to lens and sometimes cataract. Either this is different 
from specific ophthalmia, or we are all wrong in description of 
latter disease—I am inclined to latter belief.” 
Dr. T. J. Turner, Missouri, gives a description of the disease 
essentially identical with that quoted from Dr. Clement, and I 
have noted in several cases in Illinois the same symptoms, course 
and termination. I would add also that on several occasions on 
farms where the disease had not before occurred, and in families 
wheie prior history had been wholly clean in respect to this dis- 
