834 
W. J. MARTIN. 
the last few years by both human and veterinary medicine, the 
origin or cause of this destructive disease is still wrapped in 
profound obscurity. In human medicine it is still called a mi¬ 
asmatic contagious malady, and, if I am correctly informed, the 
specific microbe which causes it has not yet been discovered.. 
In the horse. Dr. E. C. Schroeder, in 1892, investigated for the 
Bureau of Animal Industry an outbreak among horses in South 
Dakota called “ Bottom Disease,” which, from the symptoms 
given, I believe to have been sporadic cerebro-spinal meningitis. 
Dr. Schroeder held several post-mortem examinations, and for¬ 
warded to the Bureau for microscopical examination parts of 
the liver and spleen. Aside from some interesting pathological 
chaiiofcs of a cirrhotic nature in the structure of the liver, the 
examination revealed nothing. That cerebro-spinal menin¬ 
gitis is to be viewed as an interstitial inflammation of the brain 
and spinal cord, together with their meningeal coverings, due 
to the ingestion into the system of certain low forms of either 
animal or vegetable life, such as protozoa or fungi, taken into 
the system by the food, drinking water or the breathing of mi¬ 
asmatic night air, seems to be the general opinion among vet- 
. erinarians who have clinically investigated the disease. 
If due to a fungus this is no doubt accumulated upon hay 
or grass during the wet season, and, being eaten, the fermenta-. 
tion of digestion there is carried into the blood-stream the toxin 
or ptomaine thus generated. This toxin produces great chemical 
changes, both upon the blood and great nerve centres of the body. 
It is well known that low miscropic forms of fungi and pro¬ 
tozoa are the exciting cause of many diseases in men and ani¬ 
mals. The so-called “ Leeches ” or Bursattee sores seen on 
horses in this country and India are due to the presence in the 
blood of protozoa. Late researches into the cause of malarial 
fevers in man have shown that the primary cause of this dis¬ 
ease is the presence in the blood of minute protozoa, the Plas- 
modmm Sanguinis. 
Malarial :—The manner in which this germ gains entrance 
into the circulatory system of man is as yet unknown, but that 
