546 
A. LARGE. 
time, is creating considerable excitement among stock owners in 
different parts, viz., the States of New York, New Jersey and 
Pennsylvania, from whence we receive the most frequent accounts 
of it. It is not new; it appeared on Long Island eighteen or 
twenty years ago, and assumed the form of an epidemic ; since 
that time there have been occasional outbreaks in different parts. 
We have had opportunities of seeing a number of cases, not 
only in the epidemic form, but also some in the sporadic; the 
latter a rare one, usually occurring in cities, while the epidemic 
form is usually found in the agricultural or country districts; 
this sometimes also occurring in cities, as in Brooklyn, August, 
1868. 
Although this disease is not a new one, we believe its nature 
to have been misunderstood; in the different works on veterinary 
literature it is not mentioned ; and those persons that have wit¬ 
nessed it, have called it by different names according; to their 
fancy, or on account of some special symptom. Thus, some have 
termed it staggers, others putrid fever, others paralysis, paralysis 
of the throat, etc. While some few, on account of the difficulty 
in swallowing, have termed it diphtheria, a disease which, if it ex¬ 
isted in the horse, could not be diagnosed with any degree of 
accuracy during life; as an examination of the fauces, which is 
necessary for diagnosis, cannot easily, if at all, be made. We 
have been for some years a disbeliever in the prevailing opinions 
with regard to this pathological condition, on account of the 
symptoms exhibited, and the post mortem appearances. We con¬ 
sidered it (when dealing with sporadic cases) as a grave affection 
of the nerve-centres. This opinion was corroborated during the 
investigation of the disease in an epidemic form on several occa¬ 
sions. The symptoms then exhibited in the different cases af¬ 
fected, and the post mortem appearances, sustained our diagnosis 
and previous ideas of the disease, and in our opinion (in which we 
are happy to say we were sustained by a number of medical o> e n- 
tlemen) definitely established its pathology, which is 
“ cerebro-spinal meningitis,” (epidemic). 
The same disease that has prevailed, and is prevailing in the 
human race, and sometimes known as spotted fever. 
