2
the amount of information available as a basis for this report and rendered the work of
collection of evidence much more difficult and prolonged than it otherwise would have
been. The complete absence of skilled assistance in clinical observation and record
threw a large amount of manipulative work on me which might just as well have been
performed by a Veterinary Assistant had one been available. This was only felt at
first, for, later, Corporal Hill, 2nd Somersetshire Regiment, became competent to make
intelligent observations and records of the pulse, respirations, temperature, and general
symptoms of the cases, so that the clinical records could be continued during my
absence at Tonghoo; I may add that the average salootri is quite unfit for any
such duty. The disease is not one in which elaborate section-cutting for microscopical
investigation is required, but such researches in this line as suggested themselves
have been carried out with satisfactory results; the blood is the seat of the disorder
and can best be examined while it is alive and as taken from the living animal. The
parasites which occur in it are peculiar in their life-history and in their relations to the
phenomena of the disease, on both of which matters the present research has increased
our knowledge. A serious stumbling block to progress in study of their develop-
mental changes was the fact that they become invisible on drying up and practically so
on cessation of their movements. I made attempts to stain them in various ways and
have obtained excellent results from the use of aniline dyes. Culture was a line of
research for which my appliances would not suffice. This matter is of great importance
as bearing on the entry into and exit from the system of the parasites, but must be
Worked out by future observers. My attempts at curative treatment have not given
any important results of a positive character, but I have obtained some information as
to prevention. Although much of importance remains to be done before we thoroughly
understand how to grapple with this disorder practically and successfully, yet I trust
the present inquiry will be found to have added important facts to our knowledge of
its clinical features, causes, and true pathology.
2. HISTORY OF THE DISORER.—I believe that, since Dr. Evans' discovery of Surra
in the Trans-Indus territory in 1880, no further scientific mention of the disease has
been made until it has now been my good fortune to observe it in British Burma.
Dr. Evans alludes to the probable occurrence of it in Persia during the autumn of
1876 and considers it as a cause of fatality among our transport animals in the Afghan
campaigns. I have read descriptions of cases which seem to have been of this nature
occurring enzootically and epizootically in Assam and Australia, but they have not
been dealt with by competent veterinarians. I can recall to mind two cases of obscure
disorder, considered " typhoid," which I had seen under treatment at Woolwich and
Secunderabad respectively, which may have been sporadic relapsing fever. It would
be worth while to ascertain, if possible, whether the anæmia which prevailed recently
among British horses in Egypt was relapsing fever. I have no details to hand, but
believe the disease which prevailed among the troop-horses in the last Egyptian war
was very fatal, and that possibly relapsing fever prevails in the Kile delta as in those of
the Irrawaddi and Indus. It is not at all improbable that in the future we shall find
" Surra" taking a place in veterinary science as one of the most serious diseases with
which we have to contend, especially as affecting the horse and mule, and there is
reason to think, from its being observed in places so far apart as the north-west and
south-east frontier countries of British India, that its geographical range is very
extended and that it may occur on various geological formations and under very diverse
climatic conditions. Dr. Evans' observations and mine show that its range in species
is extensive, and it is possible that it may ultimately be proved communicable from
quadrupeds to man and so be found to have important bearings on human medicine;
from a study of it in animals as much light may possibly in the future be thrown on
general pathology as has resulted in the case of anthrax—a disease in some respects
allied to that under consideration (vide infra).
3. In 1883 the British Burma disease began to appear among the mules of the
supply depot and of the 5th Madras Native Infantry half transport at Rangoon ; one
case (possibly two) also occurred in the European Infantry at the same station. It
was most severe by far among the dep6t mules which had been for a long time exposed
in the open during the monsoon; there is a certain amount of difficulty in determining
when the earliest case occurred, the earlier diagnoses being obscure, but the disorder,
having caused some deaths in August and September, proved extremely fatal in October