550 
A. LARGE. 
what that condition is, of course in our present knowledge it is 
impossible to say. 
But there is one important point to be considered in this con¬ 
nection. In view of the endemic or epidemic character, the 
question naturally arises : Is this disease contagious or infectious ? 
We do not believe it is either one or the other. When this dis¬ 
ease breaks out among animals in a certain location, it may be 
fatal to many or all; but that is no proof of contagion or infec¬ 
tion, for they are all alike exposed to the local existing cause what¬ 
ever it may be. A healthy animal being placed in an affected 
district, and allowed to remain, may be affected, similar to a 
person contracting intermittent fever (fever and ague), but that is 
no proof of contagion or infection, for the same reason above 
stated. The only proof we can have, is of an animal affected 
carrying the disease from the locality where it was contracted 
and communicating it to healthy animals. Can this be done? In 
answer to this question we will say, that two years ago we had an 
animal affected with the disease removed to a stable anions* a 
number of healthy horses ; the disease was fatal to the patient, 
but was not communicated to any others. We had a second case, 
placed under the same conditions, resulting the same as far as 
other horses were concerned, but the patient recovered, as it was 
seen early in the disease. 
The non-communicability of the disease has again been proved 
by a recent epidemic in Brooklyn. 
The Causation. When disease assumes an epidemic or en¬ 
demic character, there is a special cause in operation, a blood- 
poison of some kind ; but what it is we do not know. There may 
possibly be co-operating causes, which may assist the special un¬ 
known cause in producing the disease; for example: it usually 
makes its appearance in the spring and early summer months of 
the year, when the weather is changeable in temperature and fre¬ 
quently wet, like animal poisons generally that require a certain 
amount of heat and moisture to render them active in the pro¬ 
duction of disease, as they are considered by some as totally inert 
in power when in a quite dry conditon, even under an elevated 
temperature. According to our experience, stable management 
