830 
W. J. MARTIN. 
Illinois at various seasons of the year and which causes the 
death of many horses. 
The disease is most commonlv seen in districts in which the 
land used for meadow and pasture purposes is low and marshy 
and undrained. Mr. J. G.’s barn is situated in a narrow strip 
of country known as the “ Barrens ” and for several years past I 
haye met with many sporadic cases of the disease in that vici¬ 
nity. The geological formation of the “ Barrens ” is a yellow 
sandy soil ; in places the sand is in ridges and heaps, varying in 
height from a few feet to more than 20. Interspersed between 
these ridges, are long, low stretches of marshy undrained land, 
on which grows a rank coarse wild grass. These bottom lands 
being unsuitable for cultivation are made to yield a very inferior 
quality of hay and are also used as pastures for stock. During 
the spring season the grass in those meadows is more or less 
covered with water and the detritus washed down by freshets 
from the surrounding ridges. 
It is usually among horses fed exclusively on this kind of 
hay and grass that we find sporadic cases of cerebro-spinal 
meningitis, though at rare intervals cases will be met with 
among horses fed on the best of tame hay that has grown 
on fertile black soil that has been thoroughly drained. 
From my observations there seem to be three distinct stages 
of the disease, viz., acute, subaciite and chronic. These various 
stages are not by any means clearly defined, the disease in many 
of the cases having a tendency to become chronic from the out¬ 
set for several weeks and all at once becoming acute, quickly 
destroying the animal. Again, the disease will from the first 
be of an acute form of the most fatal type ; the subacute stage 
cannot in the majority of the cases be differentiated from the 
chronic except in those cases in which a temporary improve¬ 
ment may take place for a short time. 
Symptoms :—For several days the animal will appear slightly 
dull and languid in his actions, has a tucked-up appearance 
in the flanks, does not perform his usual labor as formerly, lags 
behind his mate in harness and at times will refuse to eat. The 
