607 
BURSATIE. 
By Robert Spooner Hart, M.R.C.V.S., Calcutta. 
Stimulated by the text Quod erat inveniendum , and the 
conflicting opinions which I have heard expressive of the 
comparative position which the disease “ bursatie” held to 
human pathology, I have been induced to pen the accom¬ 
panying observations. 
For some time past this disease and its existing theories 
have occupied my attention ; and as a result I feel almost 
certain that I shall succeed in making clear what Bursatie is ; 
and should I do so, and never having seen anything on the 
subject, I may reasonably presume to claim for myself the 
right of having thrown a light on one of the most virulent 
maladies to which horseflesh is heir. Bursatie, from the 
Hindoostanee word “Bursat,”meaning rain,is the native name 
of a disease, and, in fact, the only one it goes by, which pre¬ 
vails during all months of the year, but assumes a more pro¬ 
tracted and aggravated form during the rains, which in 
India last from May till August. I remember during the 
period mentioned in 1869 that the disease was very rife and 
of a protracted form, the season being notorious for an elevated 
temperature with excessive humidity. To those unacquainted 
with the disease I would state that it is one characterised by 
the formation of hard patches or tumours under the skin, 
having as their special character a tendency to enlarge, 
spread, and ulcerate, and to be accompanied with a decline of 
the general health. The disease is almost certain to recur, 
and the sores are notorious for an extreme vegetative luxu¬ 
riance and an exuberant vitality. 
“ Bursatie” sores become more malignant and severe in 
their latter stages than in their earlier. They recur also very 
much quicker and the ulcerative process is more rapid at 
that time, until at last the patient, from constant emaciation, 
dies exhausted, or the case terminates in the declaration of 
symptoms allied to farcy or glanders. The tubercles show a 
decided tendency to form on particular parts, and most obsti¬ 
nately refuse to be eradicated from the site of their first 
development. They occur on the extremities, face, lips, 
neck, conjunctiva, cartilago-nictitans, anterior parts of the 
body, scrotum and penis, &c. So far as I am aware, the 
disease is peculiar to the tropics, and is said to be contagious 
and infectious \ but with reference to this and its hereditary 
