Medical Officers of the Army of India.
of man. Respecting the more prolonged illnesses naturally acquired precise
information is as yet but scanty, consisting of three cases given by Dr.
Evans in which the animals were destroyed, and of 6 examples detailed by Mr.
Steel in which natural demise occurred ; of these last 3 had been first entered
under a provisional diagnosis of " gastric typhoid " (in allusion to the gastric
ulcers sometimes found in Burma cases), dying on the 53rd, 59th, and 93rd
day of disease respectively, so far as ascertained ; and as the blood-parasites
were present in all, there is here, too, evidence- of the much longer persistence
of the infection than ever- was -learnt by me as regards the human spirillum-
f ever. What may be the precise state of the blood and viscera in cases
of surra lingering for 6 or 12 months does not appear to be ascertained : nor
apparently have recoveries been ever watched throughout, and hence the ques-
tion of immunity or of an increased liability cannot yet be raised. It is well
known that no immunity against re-infection is imparted by an attack of
" spirillum-fever.".
As to the character of the disease inoculable in animals of different species
to the equines and man respectively, available data are but few. I found the
spirillum-infection to be communicable only to a quadrumanous animal, in which
the blood-parasites with their clinical attendants, are even readily reproduced,
and, as sometimes happens in the human subject, the first outbreak of illness
may prove fatal : it being also remarkable that after the more usual event of
recovery, relapses were extremely rare. (if ever occurring) in the monkey. As
regards the equine disease, Mr. Steel succeeded on first attempt in similarly com-
municating this to a monkey of probably similar species, whose chart shows
the animal to have at first and for 30 days at least truly acquired the specific
recurring fever : numerous later relapses are also said to have occurred, but the
state of the blood is not recorded, and the monkey died after two months or
more with the complication of ulcers and necrosis of the foot, so that possibly
(in my opinion) septicœmia had finally supervened, and other data for comparison
are desirable. Adverting, next, to disease artificially induced in the dog, a
notable divergence of results becomes evident ; for whilst like others I failed to
communicate the spirillum-infection from man to the healthy common dog, yet
three veterinary surgeons have readily transmitted the equine surra-infection to
dogs whose blood was, in two instances at least, previously ascertained to be
free from the parasites. From these- data it appears that a healthy pup infected
probably by the mouth on or about 5th October 1880 early showed abundant
blood-contamination (Evans), which was, again seen at intervals until 3rd Novem-
ber ; shortly. after this the puppy got the "d i s t e m p e r " a n d b y a n i n j u r y l o s t t h e
use of an eye ; its blood, however, was free from organisms on 15th January 1881,
1. 2th and 28th February and so late as 24th March (Lewis, second Memoir) : the
general condition and ultimate fate of the animal being unknown. Mr. Gunn
71