EDITORIAL. 
9 
A serious disease had been reported as prevailing among 
cows and horses and had been pronounced to be rinderpest, for¬ 
tunately an error of diagnostic. 
After its first appearance, the disease showed but little ten¬ 
dency to spread. But when it did, several towns were severe suf¬ 
ferers, and, if not exaggerated, reported as carrying away 4,000 
bovines and 1,000 horses. The animals in these towns were not 
stabled, but left in open fields after working. 
The disease presented itself under two different clinical 
forms, one in which predominated symptoms of paralysis (para¬ 
lytic form) and another with those of excitement (furious form). 
Symptoms were alike in bovines and equines. The paralytic form 
was the most frequent. The symptoms lasted two or three days 
and were followed by gradually progressing paralysis behind. In 
the furious form manifestations of excited nature were shown 
from the start. The animals affected were very restless; kept 
first away from the others, and soon became aggressive and at¬ 
tacked men, as well as other animals. In some, elevations of tem¬ 
perature could be noticed, yet fever was not always present. 
There have been observed in some great hyperesthesia of the 
skin, and the animals would keep rubbing and scratching or even 
biting their own skin and tearing it. 
The total duration was only of a few days and ended in com¬ 
plete paralysis. 
As all the animals were sure to die, no treatment was re- 
sorted to. The meat and skin of the animals were often used, no 
bad results being reported. 
The autopsy revealed no macroscopic lesions worth mention¬ 
ing, only hyperemia of the meninges and of all the central 
nervous system. 
The symptomatology suggested rabies, and this was some¬ 
what confirmed by the history of the recent presence of rabid 
dogs in the vicinity. However, the examination of sections of 
the nervous specimen settled the question. The presence of nu¬ 
merous corpuscles of Negri, well characterized with the manifest 
infiltration round the capillaries and the proliferation of the cells 
