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(v) Stables should be erected on high ground, and not, as so frequently happens, in a hollow
bordering on the bed of a river.
It is well known that Surra, when untreated, is an absolutely fatal malady ; the disease taking an
unusually rapid course in the case of overworked animals. When once the disease is diagnosed the
animal is useless. Isolation and subsequent destruction, therefore, would entail no hardship to
owners; and power to enable officers to enforce it, and the burning of all diseased carcasses would be a
great step towards the limitation of outbreaks.
The question of the introduction of an Act to limit the spread of Surra, as in the case of Glanders,
is an important one. It would be useless, however, to bring one class of animals (tonga ponies) under
an Act, unless the other (ekka ponies) were likewise included; for, at present, the former only are
under compulsory registration, although the latter are quite as numerous.
No Government official can interfere with animals the subjects of Surra; consequently, only
advice can be given to the owners as to the best means of prevention against the spread of the
disease.
II.—Preliminary Treatment and Subsequent
Inoculation.
Observations were undertaken with the view to determine the efficacy of subjecting healthy
animals to drugs, sufficient to cause the full physiological effects previous to submitting them to expe-
rimental inoculation with Surra.
(i). By Arsenic in the form of Liquor
Arsenicalis.
No. XCVIII.—Australian mare, aged. After a period of observation lasting 22 days, during
which daily observations were recorded of the water drunk, urine passed, and total urea excreted, the
animal was submitted to a course of Arsenic in the form of Liquor Arsenicalis, with a view to deter-
mine the efficacy of subjecting an animal to the drug sufficient to cause the full physiological effects
previous to submitting it to experimental inoculation with Surra.
The first dose was given on the evening of March 28th, 1894, and the administration of the chemical
was continued until the morning of the 21st May 1894. Three hundred and twenty decimal point seven
(320.7) grains in all were administered during a period of 54 days, or a daily mean of nearly six grains.
At 5 P.M., on the latter date, the animal was inoculated over the left scapular region, with 0.7 c.c. of
blood containing a large number of hæmtozoa, taken from a Guinea Pig immediately after death. The
latent period occupied five days. As no protection was conferred by the Arsenic, which in this case
averaged only 6 grains daily, instead of at least ten, owing to symptoms of gastric irritation supervening,
a treatment of Iodide of Arsenic and Mercury was adopted, but this had to be abandoned for a like
cause to the above. The animal succumbed on the 51st day of the disease, during which six paroxysms
lasting 27 days and five intermissions lasting 24 days occurred.
In this case the latent period of the disease was not lengthened, but the organisms only attained
to very numerous,—between 20 and 50 in a field of the microscope on four occasions during a period
of 51 days the case lasted. Great difficulty was experienced in getting the animal to take the drug,
so that although gastric symptoms appeared, the full physiological effect of the Arsenic was never
produced.
No. CII.—Country-Bred gelding, aged. Arsenic administered from 27th June 1894. In all 430
grains were given. Died 9 P.M. 29th July 1894. The animal received an average of 13 grains for 33
days. Death took place from Arsenical poisoning, somewhat suddenly, just before the date for the
inoculation test.
(ii) By the Double Iodide of Arsenic and Mercury.
No. XCIX. — Australian gelding, aged. After a period of observation lasting eight days, during
which daily observations were recorded of the water drunk, urine passed, and total urea excreted, the
animal was submitted to a course of medicine consisting of the Double Iodides of Arsenic and Mercury,
with the same object in view as in the case of No. XCVIII animal. The first dose of v c.c. was ad-
ministered on the evening of the 5th April 1894, and continued in increasing quantities until the
morning of May 21st, a period of 46 days. In all 158 grains of each salt, Iodide of Arsenic and Iodide
of Mercury, were given. At 5 P.M., on 21st May, the animal was subcutaneously inoculated with
0.8 c.c. of blood containing swarms of hæmatozoa taken from the heart of a Guinea Pig immediately
after death. The period of incubation lasted five days, and the case lasted 59 days from the first appearance
of the organism in the blood. There were seven paroxysms lasting 24 days, and seven intermissions
lasting 35 days. As no protection against the Surra hæmatozoon had been conferred by the preliminary
treatment of the Double Iodides, the animal was again submitted to the same salts ; but, in addition, a
small dose of Arsenic as Liquor Arsenicalis was administered at intervals. During the first five paroxysms,
the fever assumed the typical relapsing form ; for, within a few days, the temperature fell from over
41°C. to 37.4°C., equal to 7°F., and on a second occasion from 41.8°C. to 36.8°C., equal to 9.2°F.; but
during the latter part of the case the temperature oscillated in the most irregular manner. Until six
days before death, the organism never exceeded few (5 in a field), but frequently there was only one
in a cover-glass specimen of blood.