473 
MIDLAND COUNTIES VETERINARY MEDICAL 
ASSOCIATION. 
The twelfth meeting of the above Association was held at the 
Great Western Hotel, Stafford, on Monday, April 26th, 1869. 
The President, Mr. John Carless, of Stafford, occupied the chair. 
There were present—Messrs. H. Cartwright, of Wolverhampton ; 
Blakeway, of Stourbridge; Stanley, of Birmingham ; Litt, of Shrews¬ 
bury ; Alarkham, of Rugeley ; J. Coe, Stoke-on-Trent; Proctor, of 
Coventry; Ison, of Atherstone; Dayus, of Harrington; and Barry, 
of Lichfield. 
The accounts of the Treasurer were received and passed. 
Mr. Carless was unanimously re-elected President for the ensuing 
year. 
Messrs. Markham, Litt, and Dayus, were elected Vice-Presidents 
in the room of Messrs. Cartwright, Stanley, and Blakeway, 
retiring. 
Mr. Alfred Proctor was elected Honorary Treasurer, Mr. Barry 
re-elected Honorary Secretary. 
Other business having been transacted, Mr. Litt, of Shrewsbury, 
read a paper on Purpura Haemorrhagica and Scarlatina in the 
Horse.” 
I have in this paper combined the two subjects of purpura and 
scarlatina, because there is a sufficient similarity in the leading 
symptoms of the two diseases to render it possible for one to be 
mistaken for the other, although they are in their nature widely 
different. Purpura haemorrhagica is characterised by prostration, 
debility, oedematous swellings, and the development of purple 
blotches on tlie visible mucous membranes, and, indeed, in the 
tissues generally. It is a disease which seldom occurs primarily, 
generally following in the wake of some such debilitating affection 
as influenza. Purpura of the horse differs essentially from the 
affection of the same name in man. Purpura in man is not cha¬ 
racterised by a dropsical tendency, but is closely allied to scurvy, 
and induced, like scurvy, by the excessive use of salt provisions, 
amongst other causes. 
Purpura in the horse consists of an altered condition of the blood, 
together with extreme tenuity of the vessels and tissues of the body 
generally. The blood is thin and poor, deficient in fibrin, and the 
red corpuscles are liable to disintegration. Indeed, I believe that 
the purple spots so characteristic of the disease are due to the 
breaking up of the red corpuscles, escape of the colouring matter, 
and its deposit in the areolar tissue. 
Symj)toms .—The first symptom usually noticed is swelling, 
either of the extremities or about the lips, slight perhaps in the first 
instance, but afterwards rapidly increasing, more particularly about 
