RABIES AND STRONGYLUS TETRACANTHUS. 
283 
I did not attempt a study of the growth and development 
of these parasites, neither did I perform any experiments in 
the way of feeding them to other animals. In an interesting 
letter addressed to me not long since in reference to his ex¬ 
perience with this parasite, Tait Butler, V.S., of Davenport, 
Iowa, says : I was called to see a trotting bred mare, four 
years old, that to me presented no other symptoms than those 
usually observed in those cases of indigestion or mal-assimila- 
tion so frequently met with in animals of that age. I pre 
scribed quinine and strychnine with little other effect than to 
cause the expulsion along with the fasces of a large number 
of small red worms of from a quarter to three-quarters of an 
inch in length. I immediately began the use of turpentine 
along with the tonics, but owing to the advanced state of the 
case the animal died. Several others of the same herd of 
horses were diseased, but rapidly recovered under the treat¬ 
ment above indicated. The winter following the parasites 
again made their appearance, but with turpentine were again 
destroyed, never to appear again up to date. On the animal that 
died I held a post-mortem, and found the large intestines of a 
dark color, indicating a subacute inflammation of a very ex¬ 
tensive nature. Instead of finding one or two black spots in 
dicating the abode of one or more parasites, on a square inch 
of the mucous membrane I found twenty. In fact a careful 
estimate indicated that there were not less than seventy-five 
thousand of these parasites infesting the large intestines of this 
animal, and this, notwithstanding that the animal had passed in 
fasces during the two weeks preceding death an equally large 
number. In the intestines were found many of the larger 
white variety mentioned by Prof. Williams, varying in length 
from one to two inches. I first placed a number of the small 
red worms, of say from three-eighths to one-half an inch in 
length, in a temperature of twenty-eight degrees below zero 
and kept them there for three days, when they were carefully 
thawed out and kept for twenty-four hours in well water at 
a temperature of sixty degrees. During this twenty-four 
hours they increased at least one hundred per cent, in length, 
and lost much, if not all of their red color. Some of these 
