264 
THE INFLUENZA IN HORSES. 
Montreal, and generally in the Dominion. On the 14th 
October it had reached Buffalo. On the 17th Rochester 
had half its horses sick ; on the 19th Lockport, Canandaigua, 
Geneva, Syracuse, and Albany were affected, while up to the 
22nd Batavia, Auburn, and Utica were reported sound. It 
appeared in Jefferson County on Oct. 20th, but not in 
Oswego till Oct. 25th. On Oct. 21st it was reported in 
Attica, Wyoming County, and Steuben County, N. Y., and 
at Keene, N. H.; and on the 22nd at Boston and Revere, 
Mass.; at Lewiston, Me., and at New York, Brooklyn, and 
Jersey City. Yet Poughkeepsie was only attacked on Oct. 
27th, and Kingston, Dutchess County, on Nov. 1st, though 
apparently in the direct course of the disease. It reached 
Philadelphia Oct. 27th, Washington on Oct. 28th, Columbus, 
Ohio, on Oct. 29th, Cleveland, Ohio, on Oct. 30th, Pittsburg, 
Penn., on Oct. 31st, Norfolk and Portsmouth, Va., on Nov. 
1st, Goldsboro, N. C., and Charleston, S. C., on Nov. 30th. 
Yet it only showed itself in Binghampton, N. Y., on Oct. 
28th; in Ithaca, still farther north, on Oct. 31st; at Titus¬ 
ville, Penn., and Port Jervis, N. Y., on Oct. 29th; at Nyack, 
N. Y., on Oct. 30th; at Kingston, N. Y., on Nov. 1st, and 
at Scranton, Penn., on Nov. 13th. It is useless to pursue 
the history. Facts like these cannot be easily reconciled to 
the idea of a uniformly diffused unwholesome condition of 
the atmosphere, nor to that of a steady progress from its 
point of origin by atmospheric means alone. Its progress 
from Toronto has been to the east, west, north, and south, 
and if it has been more rapid to the east than in other direc¬ 
tions this may be explained by the prevalence of north¬ 
westerly winds, and by the more active commercial inter¬ 
course. The alleged cases of its appearance in ships in 
mid-ocean break down under investigation. In the instances 
alleged the ships had never been very far from shore, 
though technically a number of days at sea. 
Much of the confusion in which the subject of causation 
is involved would be cleared up could we decide as to 
whether the disease is contagious. In other words, if the 
introduction of a sick animal into a healthy district well out 
of the former area of the disease leads to a speedy diffusion 
of the malady in this new locality, we must conclude that 
there exists a specific poison capable of being carried in the 
diseased body, and probably of increasing indefinitely there. 
And such a conclusion is utterly incompatible with the idea 
that it is caused by an unusual condition of terrestrial or 
atmospheric electricity, by ozone or antozone, by irritating 
or noxious gases or vapours, by high or low barometrical pres- 
