It is, however, not always the case that suppuration is the immediate result. In some cases the swelling subsides, and apparently for the time it disappears, but sooner or later it reappears and goes through the usual process of abscess formation.

When the disease attacks the mucous membrane of the nose, "the lesions are first noticed in the form of small papules or pimples, which rapidly form into vesicles and burst, forming a well-defined ulcer with a raised edge and dug-out centre. They are at first isolated, but later become confluent and tend to extend to the cartilage of the septum nasi, causing the mucous membrane to become discoloured and greatly thickened by exuberant granulations, at times forming a kind of polypus which interferes with respiration and causes snuffling. In advanced cases the cartilage becomes spongy and the nasal bones increased in thickness. Enlargement of the submaxillary glands may, but does not necessarily, as it is stated in glanders, accompany nasal symptoms; i.e. it is not constant, and does not occur even in advanced cases. However, when it is involved the gland may be somewhat indurated and stiff from suppurative inflammation either affecting it or the surrounding tissues; but it is generally movable, and seldom or never fixed to the jaw and knotty, as in glanders." (Pallin.)

Treatment

Eighty-six per cent of cases of epizootic lymphangitis are said to recover, but the precautions, and the thoroughness with which they require to be treated, the close attention they demand, extending over long periods, and the possibility of a recurrence - to say nothing of the risk of scattering the disease - has placed it outside the pale of treatment, and unless the horse is of the highest value we would recommend that he be destroyed at once.

From the point of view of the sanitary economist, this is the only course short of allowing it to spread and to gain a permanent footing in our studs.

Captain Martin, A.V.D., thinks that stamping out the disease by slaughter will not act any more quickly than stamping it out by isolation and treatment, and that destruction of cases before giving them a trial with treatment is in his opinion a waste of money, and the only advantage he recognizes is a slight saving of a little trouble. Captain Martin, however, does not fail to recognize the serious nature of the disease. " Its insidious method of spread due to the long incubation period, and the tenacity of life of the organism together with the prolonged treatment necessary for a cure, will always mark the disease as a serious one; but," he says, " there should be no difficulty in eradicating the disease from any stud by careful isolation, and adopting correct methods in the treatment of all wounds."

Whatever may be the result of treatment, we beg to differ from Captain Martin when he says that " stamping out by slaughter will not act more quickly than stamping out by isolation and treatment", and as for the few pounds he thinks we may waste or the little trouble we may escape by immediate destruction of the affected animals, we shall have the satisfaction at least of knowing that the animal and its contagion have been put out of the way for ever, and is therefore incapable of doing harm.

Of the horses attacked in the British army sixty-four per cent have already been killed. Why, we should like to know, has it been found necessary to destroy all these animals? The only interpretation which can be put upon the action of the army authorities is that of stamping out the disease, and so far as we can see it is the only rational course open to them. It is quite understood that others in their charge suffering from the disease still remain alive, and it is to be hoped that these will sooner or later be dealt with in the same manner. To count on its being recognized early enough, or being treated with that laboratory exactness, when discovered, which Captain Martin lays down as necessary, is placing far too much confidence in both the horse-owning public and the veterinary surgeon.

Principally the disease is, at the present time, in our military hospitals, and if it is not intended to allow it to escape, every horse now suffering from it should be destroyed. Epizootic lymphangitis is contagious, and although not immediately destructive, it is nevertheless dangerous by virtue of its long-continued and crippling effects, and every effort should be put forward to stamp it out while it is confined within a narrow area.

The serious aspect of the disease has led the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries to include it with the contagious affections against the spread of which their efforts are chiefly directed, and an Order which came into operation on the 6th of April, 1904, and drawn very much on the lines of that of glanders, has made it compulsory on the part of any person possessing an animal so affected to give notice of it to the police, " when a local Authority, on being satisfied by an inquiry under the preceding article of the existence of epizootic lymphangitis, shall forthwith take such steps as may be practicable to secure the isolation of any horse affected with or suspected of that disease, and for that purpose an inspector of a local Authority may serve a notice in writing ... on the owner or person in charge of any horse, requiring that such horse be detained on or in any field, yard, stable, shed, or other place specified in the notice, and after the service of such notice it shall not be lawful for any person to move such horse from or out of such place of detention, or to permit any other horse to come in contact with any horse to which the notice applies, or to remove from or out of such place any carcase of a horse or any dung, fodder, litter, or other thing that has been in contact with any horse to which the notice applies."

PLATE XXXIV. THE DESCENT OF THE TESTICLES.

1. Testicle within the Abdomen before its descent. 2. Testicle within the Abdomen on its way to the Scrotum or Purse. 3. Testicle passing through the Inguinal Ring. A. Testilcle. B. Gubernaculum Testis by which it is guided through. C. Inguinal Ring. D. Spermatic Artery.

The Board might even have gone further, and have directed that all horses should be at once destroyed, and compensation paid to the extent of three-fourths of their value at the time when they became infected.