AN UNUSUAL CASE OF EPIZOOTIC LYMPHANGITIS IN A MULE
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Working in Great Britain, Runciman [1904] observed that the first symptoms
of the disease are a slight rise of temperature and sometimes a filling of the hind
limbs, diminished appetite and a rapid loss of condition. No further change takes
place for days, until suddenly cutaneous nodules make their appearance and cover
the whole of the animal's body within a space of 12 to 24 hours. Such cases are
not amenable to any treatment and rapidly progress to a fatal issue. Until the
appearance of the nodules, the symptoms observed are extremely vague and
provide little of diagnostic value. According to this worker, cases of this kind are
of digestive or respiratory origin, the primary nodules being present in the internal
organs. In the primary cutaneous form of the disease, he is unaware of any
symptoms other than the presence of the nodules ; while he is confident that cases
of primary internal infection do occur where the condition can be diagnosed only
after the appearance of the specific nodules in a visible part of the body. He
cites a few cases of primary internal infection he encountered, where the animals
were sick a long time before the actual appearance of external lesions. In one of
his cases, where the animal was ill for some time, the nodules appeared all of a
sudden and the animal died. On post mortem examination, abscesses were found
in the lungs which contained a thick creamy pus, suggesting to him that the
lungs were the primary seat of infection. Hence Runciman considers it as hardly
probable that the infection in this disease is conveyed exclusively through the
skin.
Cornish Bowden [1904] records the particulars of a horse exhibiting severe
premonitory and systemic symptoms which were followed subsequently by severe
diarrhoea and cutaneous lesions. This animal was purchased in good condition
on 7th July, 1904, it went off feed a week later, and rapidly went down in condi-
tion until it developed severe foetid diarrhoea, with small cutaneous sores which
were noticed later on 20th July, 1904. The animal, however, was successfully
treated with potassium iodide, iodine and quinine and was discharged, cured on
18th August, 1904. This was presumably a case of the disease where infection of
the intestines preceded the involvement of the skin.
Harber [1913] had experience of numerous well marked lesions appearing on
the body of horses in the course of 48 hours, and of some unbroken buds appearing
in 24 hours. However, he was unable to detect any wounds on the affected animals,
which might have served as portals of entry for the parasites concerned. He
remarks that, in these cases, the organisms could not have been carried by harness,
etc., as these animals were kept in strict quarantine and were not being worked.
Harber [1913] presumes that the disease becomes generalized to the cutis from
primary lesions in the internal organs, although he failed to encounter cases of this
kind personally. He adds that the disease spreads more rapidly in donkeys than
in horses, and concludes that flies are mainly involved in the spread of the infection.
Tokishige's contention that cattle in Japan may develop atypical lesions
of the disease has been questioned by Wallis Hoare [1913], since this view is not