50
TABLE X.
Showing the month and year in which eighty-five horses were allocked with ' Surrz.'
1888...
1889...
1890...
1891...
1892...
{ Bombay Tramway Company ...
Bacteriological Laboratory ...
{ Bombay Tramway Company ...
Bacteriological laboratory ...
{ Bombay Tramway Company ...
Bacteriological Laboratory ...
{ Bombay Tramway Company ...
Bacteriological Laboratory ...
{ Bombay Tramway Company ...
Bacteriological Laboratory ...
Janu-
ary.
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
Feb-
ruary.
... ...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
March.
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
April.
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
May.
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
... 1
1
1.176
June.
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
July.
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
August.
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
Septem-
ber.
...
...
3
...
... 1
1
...
5
...
11
12.941
October.
8
...
10
...
2
1
...
...
2
...
18
21.176
Novem-
ber.
4
...
21
...
...
...
... 1
3
...
32
37.647
Decem-
ber.
7
...
10
...
... 1
...
...
5
...
23
27.058
Total.
14
...
47
...
2
4
1
1
15
1
85
99.998
4. Eating grass and sedgy vegetation grown on low-lying and marshy ground.
It is not usual for the natives of India to make any provision in the form of
hay or dried grass for the maintenance of their animals. The general custom is
to cut grass from the jungles and wastes as it is required. This being the case
it is generally impossible to be certain where it is obtained. Towards the end
of the hot weather grass on the higher lands has become burnt up, and it is
then impossible in most instances to obtain a sufficient quantity ; at lower levels,
however, especially at the bottoms of nullahs, swamps, ponds, &c, where water
has been lying till a much later period, an abundant supply can generally be
found, and it is from these sources that the grass-cutters procure it. The con-
ditions under which the water in these swamps, ponds, &c, gradually evaporates,
containing, as they do, large quantities of organic matter, and becoming almost
putrid before finally disappearing, are those favourable for the development of
Infusoria, and it is most probable that in such situations the " Trypanosoma
Evansi" or its resting form finds a suitable habitat. The grass and herbage
springing up through this semiputrid water must necessarily bear on its surface
numerous forms of organic life, and amongst them doubtless that of the Surra
Infusorian.
Similar conditions operate during the wet season or immediately following
it, especially in those parts of India where the temperature is high immediately
after the rains cease. The lands bordering on rivers and streams, or those which
are low-lying become flooded, the herbage is covered with water, which in some
cases, when the land possesses a clayey subsoil, disappears almost entirely by
gradual evaporation, and such places are favourable for the development of low
forms of animal life, and possibly for the Surra organism. Animals, there-
fore, which daily consume grass from such localities, run a risk of taking into
their systems the contagium of this disease.
5. Drinking water from stagnant pools and wells, particularly at certain
times of the year.
It is a well established fact that numerous Entozoa, &c., gain an entrance
into the system of persons drinking impure water, such for instance as the
distoma hepaticum, the eggs of which are developed in water, or the ascris
lumbricoides, as in Burmah in 1883, when at Moulmein an epidemic form of the
disease was assumed during the wet season, by contamination of the shallow
wells by surface drainage. The Dochmius duodenalis, according to Griesinger*
produced in Egypt in 1854 anaemia, liver disease, and dysentery, when introduced
by impure water.
The oxyuris vermicularis, probably taken through water (Aitkin)† and the
Filaria sanguinis hominis according to Lewis.‡
* Griesiner—Archives fur Phys Heilk, 1854.
† Aitkin—Practice of Medicine, volume 1, page 183.
‡ Lewis.