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contractor cuts it below the water surface and thus supplies a semi-fermenting mass of
which a large part is yellow semi-decayed leaves and a tough submerged stem covered
with slime. This slime is just the sort of habitat a spirillum prefers. Dry tank
grass is sweet to the taste, fairly nutritive, but liable to contain germs of spirilla such
as have (possibly) resided in the slime which has dried on the stems. Thus, as far as
relapsing fever is concerned, it is open to the same objections as the contractors' wet
tank grass. Some change in the system of feeding transport mules in Burma is sadly
needed and would, probably, if on correct lines, tend to lessen the prevalence of
relapsing fever.
29. Influence of attendants and general management can have merely a predisposing
effect on the development and prevalence of the fever. A driver in charge of three
mules has much power over them as concerns ensuring them healthy constitutions
not predisposed to disease, A careless, lazy man will allow his animals to scramble
for their food, much of their fodder to be trampled under foot and contaminated
with urine, the work to fall unevenly on his three mules, insufficient time for
drinking, heads too tightly fastened to admit of the animals reaching their feed,
and so on. Unless looked sharply after, a native may appropriate the mules' food for
use of himself and family ; sometimes a driver takes a dislike to one of his mules on
account of its being high-spirited and troublesome, and he tries the effect of lessening
its feed for the benefit of favourite mules. The eyes of the European non-commis-
sioned officer cannot be everywhere to check such practices, and he is often compelled
to be away at parades and other duties. I am inclined to consider that where a
driver has lost his three mules from this disease, he is probably careless and inefficient,
and that where he has lost two out of the three, he may be unfortunate merely, but is
more probably inefficient. Attendants may be responsible for the actual introduction
of the disease by, when on orderly or other special work, allowing their mules to drink
from dirty tanks or to eat swamp grass and whatever pickings they can get from
marshy places. In justice to these men I must add that, as a rule, they seem fond of
their animals and the mules of them, and that in the various outbreaks it is not
always the least-cared-for animals that have suffered.
30. The freedom of the Artillery mules at Tonghoo and of the Sapper mules at
Rangoon may be associated with a better acquaintance by Artillery and Engineers
than Infantry with the details of mule management. The officers and non-commis-
sioned officers in the Infantry Regiments have not been given a chance in this respect.
They have had no opportunity of acquiring experience in animal management,
practically or theoretically, so when they have made common-sense suggestions have
not been able to urge them with sufficient authority, and there has been absolutely no
systematic veterinary protection for the animals nor even have adequate health records
been kept.
31. The following table shows the monthly distribution of admissions to treat-
ment of Somersetshire mules, the percentage being taken in each case on the number
of mules left in the stables respectively. This method of search for the cause might
be worth following further if it were based on reliable facts; but, as we have already
seen that the date of admission to treatment is not, in most cases, the date of attack,
we may simply notice its results without considering them as established :—
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