7
researches with the higher magnifying powers may reveal some pathological organism
hitherto overlooked." The event has quite justified this surmise. The Chemical
Examiner to Government, E. Romanis, D.SC. (Edinburgh), examined the gastric ulcers
and found in them vegetable debris and low forms of life, but, not being a medical man,
did not feel in a position to give any statement as to their pathological importance.
10. From Tonghoo the following list of post-mortem appearances is summarised
from the evidence (in twenty-five unselected cases) given by officers of the medical
department as attending the committees for post-mortem examination of mules under
orders of the General Officer Commanding (there being no veterinary officer at the
station):—Stomach, contents solid and blood-stained in places or about a quart of
yellowish fluid; coats thin and flabby, or no ulceration, the mucous membrane being
bile-stained, or a small patch of erosion, or villous portion congested or inflamed,
cuticular ulcerated. Liver congested. Kidneys congested, soft. Brain, a blood-clot
on the surface, congested, or soft and anæmic, or inflamed. Membranes slightly con-
gested or inflamed. Dropsy of the lateral ventricles. In one case the brain " un-
doubtedly inflamed." Lungs congested, or the seat of abscesses, the result of acute
pneumonia. .Heart small and flabby, or right ventricle dilated and containing a clot
or very dark non-coagulated blood. Dropsy of the pericardium. Small intestines,
upper part inflamed or congested. Whole body much emaciated, old-looking, the seat
of general atrophy and dropsy.
This list, it will be observed, amply confirms my
views that the disease in Tonghoo is essentially the same as that at Rangoon ; at first
I thought the-congestion of brain, liver, and small intestine different from the lesions as
seen in Rangoon, but I now conclude that they are detectable in acute cases at that
station also ; this is a result of my latter post-mortem examinations at Rangoon. It
cannot be taken as in any way reflecting on the professional ablity of the medical officers
who made the above summarised post-mortem examinations if I differ from them as to
the cause of death in the majority of cases, since they were dealing with a new disease as
affecting patients of a species entirely novel to them from a professional point of view.
It will be remarked that I venture to differ from them, not as to the facts observed and
recorded, of that disease, but, on the strength of my special experience of this disorder,
I venture to differ from them in the conclusions to be drawn. The facts are recorded
in a manner which has proved most valuable to me, and they contribute materially to
our knowledge of the disease.
There was a lurking suspicion in the minds of some that the animals had
received some irritant poison maliciously administered, a matter to which I felt bound
to give very careful consideration, although Inspecting Veterinary Surgeon Evans
wrote, on 14th May 1884, that " neither the symptoms nor the post-mortem appear-
ances indicate any irritant poison * * * * . Whatever the cause may have
been, it could not have been an irritant; therefore irritants should be excluded in
future from our inquiry," and that possibly some mould or fungus on the grass
caused the disease. It will be seen later on that I am not quite inclined to accept this
view, but attribute some influence in determining local lesions to the ingestion of
irritant food, not however maliciously administered.
11. ETIOLOGY.—Veterinary Surgeon (First-class) Frost showed that the grass and
grain of all the transport mules were identical in quality and from the same sources
in Rangoon during the first outbreak, of which they therefore, he argued, could not
be the cause. He was so strongly convinced of the water from certain tanks being the
immediate cause that Inspecting Veterinary Surgeon Shaw accepted his conclusions on
the strength of the arguments brought forward by him. Dr. Romanis' water analyses
led him to conclude that " beyond showing an excess of free ammonia, which is more
or less present in tank waters, there is nothing in the above analysis to account for
the great nervous irritation." The analysis referred to was made by himself of the
waters of tanks from which the mules of Government in Rangoon were watered. It
showed the following results :—
Impurities.
Free ammonia
Organic ammonia
No. 1.
0.35
0.40
No. 2.
0.02
0.12
No. 3.
0.52
0.48