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suffered from the affection induced by inoculation with the blood of human patients.
Dr. Evans describes Surra in the camel, called also Phipri. It is considered the
third stage of a progressive anaemia, in which dropsy of the abdomen and legs and
rapid wasting occur. Recovery is almost hopeless, but, when it does take place, the
animal remains useless for two years, its urine becoming high-colored during the hot
season and natural during the cold. The usual duration of the attack is from one
week to two or three months ; it seldom lasts four months. The parasite lives longer
by several hours in the blood of the camel than in that of the horse after it has been
drawn. I find that the Burma disease as induced in the dog proved fatal after inducing
symptoms remarkably lesembling those exhibited by the mules, but with peculiar
swelling of the lymph glands on either side of the face. I found no ulceration of the
stomach after death (but cannot be quite sure on this point because the animal died dur-
ing my absence and was much decomposed before I examined its carcass). Carter's
attempts to communicate the disease of man to dogs proved unsuccessful. The parasite
in the dog's blood seems more feeble than that in the mule's; it leaves the large cor-
puscles of the dog to tackle those of the mule, but its efforts to detach the latter from
their rouleaux seem futile and ineffectual, although its movements become vigorous
and markedly spiral in the effort. It seems more uniform in diameter throughout its
length than that of the mule's blood. "When transferred into a drop of ruminant's blood,
it works its way, without the slightest difficulty, among the small red corpuscles, but
never has been seen by me to touch one of them. I have seen one parasite return
again and again to a small group of corpuscles, shaking each of them in the intervals
between its short movements to and fro and disturbing others by violent lashings of
its tail. My inoculations of a bullock with blood containing numerous and active
parasites from a mule have been followed by hard swelling at and around the seat of
inoculation, persisting for many days but without appreciable systemic disorder. A
goat too resisted inoculation, but after intraperitoneal injection fell away rapidly in
spite of excessive appetite. After death its spleen was found to be enlarged and
somewhat indurated. Thus the result of this experiment was dubious. Altogether it
is probable that the Indian ox and the goat enjoy immunity from Relapsing Fever.*
11. With the determination of the true nature of the British Burma disease arises
a question of nomenclature. There cannot be the slightest objection to the desig-
nation " Equine Relapsing Fever" as applied to this disorder in future scientific
notice of it, for it affects naturally both mules and ponies, and the thermographic
tracings leave no doubt as to its being a true relapsing fever. Surra also is an equine
relapsing fever in all probability, but Dr. Evans' records of cases are not sufficiently
long to make this absolutely clear. He has since informed me that he had been
inclined to consider the Punjab disease somewhat periodic, but the length of time
available to him for the Trans-Indus inquiry did not suffice to enable him to determine
the true relapsing character of the fever† (if it was so), and he considered Surra a
disease different in some important respects from any other that has ever been reported
on in man or beast. It will be observed that I consider the Burman disease at any
rate as a close pathological ally of relapsing fever in man.
12. There are some equine diseases which ought to be examined in comparison
with Relapsing Fever with a view to prevention of confusion in diagnosis in the future,
such as we have' reason to believe has taken place in the past. There is now no excuse
for such an error, as Relapsing Fever can be diagnosed with absolute certainty if scientific
appliances be available. ANTHRAX and Relapsing Fever agree in their enzootic
character, in that they are due to organisms of minute size, in that they are extremely
fatal, and in that they, so far as we at present know, are incurable. They are both
capable of affecting animals of various species and give rise to general lesions, petechiæ
of membranes, and so on, because the blood is the seat of disorder. The very high
internal temperature, purple blood extravasations on the conjunctiva, sometimes
diffused congestion of the bowels, also the occurrence of gelatinous deposits in various
parts of the body, and occasional extravasations in the heart valves are common to
* Although Dr. Evans found 'camels suffering from Surra he failed to find any evidence to show that horned cattle
† In his report on " Surra " Dr. Evans recorded his observations in both the dog and the horse " that the parasites
come and go in successive broods."
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