an animal, and so I understand it; but I find the great majority of the people who use the term mean either the colon or cæcum. In this case the gentleman when using the term maw meant either the stomach or the cæcum, because the neck was small, and I think (although I am not certain, as I did not thoroughly understand his explanation), he referred to the termination of the ileum.at the ileocæcal valve, and consequently meant the cæcum. Of course this might have been a complication, but an utter impossibility to cause the disease, and therefore I will not give it further consideration. Williamston, Martin County, N. C., is in the neighborhood of a mile from the river, and is situated on high land. I was told that people suffer from malarial fevers, but there were no cases of staggers among the horses in the immediate vicinity of the town. Many cases occurred in the county, however, where the land is lower.

Mr. O. Burnett, Tarborough, Edgecombe County, N. C., proprietor of sale and livery stable, had lost no horses with the disease, and after investigation I failed to find a well-authenticated case in the town, although I heard of a great many that had died. With the exception of the interesting cases to be mentioned in connection with Dr. Jones's statement, I do not think any of them were pronounced cases; but many horses died with the disease in the vicinity of Tarborough, but no mules.

Mr. J. K. Grannis, of Tarborough, formerly of Fleming County, Ky., gives a most interesting statement, as follows:

The year 1875 was a very wet one in Fleming County, and all our feed was very badly damaged. Streams were all flooded and crops spoiled. The year 1876 followed with a drought, and we lost many horses from staggers, and I think it was caused by the damaged feed raised the previous year and fed on stock during 1876. That is the only outbreak of any consequence that I know of in Kentucky.

This statement is more than interesting, as it points to the fact that feed raised the previous year will produce the disease during the hot weather of the following year, and it proves that the disease can be caused by the quality of the feed in an enzootic form. It also proves that the disease can be caused by the feed outside of the noted miasmatic localities of the South.

Dr. J. W. Jones, Tarborough, president of the State Board of Health, states that staggers occurs all over the eastern part of North Carolina. He never heard of a case in a mule; the horses die in the surrounding country; very few die in the town; knew of cases treated with quinine that died. Dr. Jones is very much interested in the matter, and will bring it prominently before the board at its next meeting. He lost a horse in November, 1885, and another in January, 1886, showing symptoms of staggers.

The only cases that died in the town of Rocky Mount this year were two horses brought in from Nash County. One died in March, the other in April. These were evidently cases of staggers, as Í made the most particular inquiry as to symptoms. These four were of course sporadic cases, or not the same disease, as all evidence goes to prove that the enzootic occurs only in hot weather.

Mr. R. H. Gatlin makes the following statement, which bears directly on the question of the susceptibility of mules:

I lost horses from the disease in 1867. This was a very wet year, and many horses were lost during the season. My wife's father had in pasture on the Roanoke River, near Hamilton, four horse colts and two mule colts. All the horses died, but the mules were not affected. Many neighbors had horse colts on the same pasture that contracted the disease and died.

Dr. L. L. Staton, Tarborough, says:

Have seen cases of staggers, and think it is a cerebro-spinal affection. I am satisfied that it is not caused by malarial influences; if it were malaria quinine would be an antidote, but I have used quinine with no more success than other treatment. I have given extremely large doses without effect. It is the general belief of this community that colts are more subject to the disease than the older horses, as the colts graze more than other horses.

I wish to call attention to the fact that in this country physicians know how to use quinine. I mention this for the reason that I was called to account, in a veterinary meeting a few years ago, for making the statement that I gave 2-drachm doses of quinine as an antipyretic. The gentlemen who almost accused me of maltreatment, it is needless to say, obtained their knowledge of quinine from writers of veterinary materia medica who resided hundreds of miles from where it was necessary to have practical knowledge. I will add that in certain cases I use it with success in much larger doses now.

I have personal knowledge of the disease in Nash, Wilson, Wayne and other counties of North Carolina, but I get no information that I have not reported about. I heard of instances where mules died, but when I came to investigate I invariably found that they died from the effect of some other disease, most generally an affection of the digestive organs. A gentleman related an instance of a wealthy planter in South Carolina who had tried for years to keep up a four-in-hand team for his wife, but the horses invariably died with staggers. As he was determined to have a four-in-hand he substituted mules for horses, and consequently had no difficulty in gratifying his desire. Gentlemen who have paid particular attention to the subject do not hesitate in saying that mules are not subject to the disease. Others will say there are two or three or four different kinds of staggers, and the mule was thought to be affected with one of the different kinds of the disease. Let no person imagine the mules are scarce in this country, for there are many of of them, and good ones, too. In some neighborhoods where we find staggers mules are in the majority, while in other localities they are in the minority. A mule is a very staple article in the South, and deservedly so, and I think if they were generally substituted for horses in those districts where staggers is sure to occur much could be saved. Of course I do not recommend that all the horses be sold off and mules procured in their stead immediately, but I mean when the farmer wants a work animal always get a mule, or when a horse dies with staggers replace it with a mule. Those who keep carriage horses could continue to do so, and could adopt the preventive treatment advised elsewhere in this report. I will conclude the mule question by saying, and I think the evidence will bear me out, that if mules are subject to the disease the percentage is so very small that it should be considered no more than any rare sporadic disease. As previously pointed out, the higher locations in this region are not affected by the disease, unless it can be traced to feed brought from some of the stagger localities, if I may be permitted to use the expression, and I have been told by the adherents of the malarial origin of the disease "that it just happened so." Well, perhaps they are right, but it seems strange that it always happens so." Goldsborough, N. C., is located on high land, and I did not come across a case of the disease in the city (although there were some reported that turned out to be something else), nor in the immeditae vicinity of the city, but like every other section there were many cases in

the county on the lower land. Mr. George D. Bennett, of Goldsborough, who is the proprietor of large sale stables, says that "it is caused by the treatment the horse receives; the horses that are brought here don't die until about the third summer."

66

I was often told that the disease was caused by sorryness," and upon inquiry I learned that by "sorryness" was meant either starvation, carelessness, laziness, or general neglect, or all combined; and we must admit that a combination of the above sins causes a great deal of trouble and sorrow in this world, but they alone can not cause staggers in the horse. I have seen as nice stables and as wellkept horses down there as I have seen anywhere, and I would indeed be ignorant of my duty if I overlooked such important matters. There are, of course, many instances where surrounding circumstances make it appear that the animal died of "sorryness," but there are many more instances where the designation is not applicable under any circumstance whatever. How many intelligent planters have been for years striving by every means within their knowledge and power to prevent this dread disease? I met gentlemen whose tastes inclined them to breeding fine horses, but the prevalence of this disease compelled them, after severe losses, to give up the enterprise in despair. I do not for a moment pretend to say that those who think the disease is due to starvation and neglect are not honest in their opinions. Quite the contrary; I know they mean what they say; but I know also that those who hold such opinions are invariably persons who never lost a horse from the effects of staggers.

As previously stated, and further investigation has proved the assertion, it is not necessary for the animals to be exposed to either the sun or the dew on the pasture in order to contract the disease; furthermore, I do not see why those who firmly believe the cause to be miasmatic prefer to turn their horses on pasture at either one of the extremes, viz., night or mid-day, when experience teaches that morning and evening are the times we are less exposed to miasmatic influences in such regions. The heat of noonday and nightly emanations are to be feared most. By morning and evening I mean, of course, after the fogs have disappeared in the morning and before the mists appear in the evening.

If the cause is in the feed, then it is reasonably possible that feed raised one year will, or can, contain the active poisonous principle that causes the disease. I have but three instances of this year's outbreak to confirm this point, viz., Mr. Frisbee, of Nansemond County, Va.; Mr. Riddick, of Gates County, N. C., and Mr. Baynor, of Washington County, N. C.; and even in these cases the animals did have a little of this year's feed.

But the convincing evidence is the outbreak in Fleming County, Ky. The question will be asked, Was that the same kind of staggers that appears in this country every year? Why not? The same cause was in operation there, viz., moisture; the summers are as warm there as in Nansemond County, Va., I am informed, and we must, therefore, conclude that it was the same form of staggers that appears every year in the extreme southeast of Virginia, the eastern part of North Carolina, South Carolina, and the other Southern States, unless investigation proves that this disease is a fever, specific and peculiar to the South, and can not occur further north than a certain latitude; but until this has been proved we are bound to call all these cases of staggers. I have a letter

Dr. L. L. Staton, Tarborough, says:

Have seen cases of staggers, and think it is a cerebro-spinal affection. I am satisfied that it is not caused by malarial influences; if it were malaria quinine would be an antidote, but I have used quinine with no more success than other treatment. I have given extremely large doses without effect. It is the general belief of this community that colts are more subject to the disease than the older horses, as the colts graze more than other horses.

I wish to call attention to the fact that in this country physicians know how to use quinine. I mention this for the reason that I was called to account, in a veterinary meeting a few years ago, for making the statement that I gave 2-drachm doses of quinine as an antipyretic. The gentlemen who almost accused me of maltreatment, it is needless to say, obtained their knowledge of quinine from writers of veterinary materia medica who resided hundreds of miles from where it was necessary to have practical knowledge. I will add that in certain cases I use it with success in much larger doses now.

I have personal knowledge of the disease in Nash, Wilson, Wayne and other counties of North Carolina, but I get no information that I have not reported about. I heard of instances where mules died, but when I came to investigate I invariably found that they died from the effect of some other disease, most generally an affection of the digestive organs. A gentleman related an instance of a wealthy planter in South Carolina who had tried for years to keep up a four-in-hand team for his wife, but the horses invariably died with staggers. As he was determined to have a four-in-hand he substituted mules for horses, and consequently had no difficulty in gratifying his desire. Gentlemen who have paid particular attention to the subject do not hesitate in saying that mules are not subject to the disease. Others will say there are two or three or four different kinds of staggers, and the mule was thought to be affected with one of the different kinds of the disease. Let no person imagine the mules are scarce in this country, for there are many of of them, and good ones, too. In some neighborhoods where we find staggers mules are in the majority, while in other localities they are in the minority. A mule is a very staple article in the South, and deservedly so, and I think if they were generally substituted for horses in those districts where staggers is sure to occur much could be saved. Of course I do not recommend that all the horses be sold off and mules procured in their stead immediately, but I mean when the farmer wants a work animal always get a mule, or when a horse dies with staggers replace it with a mule. Those who keep carriage horses could continue to do so, and could adopt the preventive treatment advised elsewhere in this report. I will conclude the mule question by saying, and I think the evidence will bear me out, that if mules are subject to the disease the percentage is so very small that it should be considered no more than any rare sporadic disease. As previously pointed out, the higher locations in this region are not affected by the disease, unless it can be traced to feed brought from some of the stagger localities, if I may be permitted to use the expression, and I have been told by the adherents of the malarial origin of the disease "that it just happened so." Well, perhaps they are right, but it seems strange that it always happens so. Goldsborough, N. C., is located on high land, and I did not come across a case of the disease in the city (although there were some reported that turned out to be something else), nor in the immeditae vicinity of the city, but like every other section there were many cases in

to agree entirely with Professor Williams when he says, in speaking of the cause of encephalitis:

Now, if engorgement of the stomach were the cause of the train of symptoms seen in this malady, then coma, delirium, or paralysis would be general in the majority of cases of engorgement seen in the routine of general practice, but this is not the case. Numerous instances of engorgement, impaction, even to the rupture of the stomach, constantly comes under the notice of the practitioner, but signs of any brain affection scarcely ever occur. We must, then, look to something more than mere impaction as the cause, and I think this will be found in the nature of the food.

The varieties of staggers met with in the South can hardly be the "grass staggers" of England, spoken of by Gresswell, as "paraplegia enzootica, or reflex paraplegia," because that form is supposed to attack animals at pasture only, and is prevented by removing to other fields.

I think I can safely say we can trace the disease as far back as there are writings on the diseases of the horse. This word staggers seems to mean anything or everything. The old writers applied the term to every nervous disorder, and our modern writers use it as a synonym for the disease they think it was originally applied to, and I must continue to use it, because the inhabitants of the country where it prevails use it for not only this well-marked nervous disorder, but for every other disease the nature of which they do not comprehend. Until the symptoms by which it may be recognized in all its forms and stages are set forth; until the characteristic post-mortem lesions are established by scientific veterinary investigations, and the disease properly classified, we must continue to use this term.

Veterinary surgeons who have been in practice many years meet with comparatively few cases of brain affections, and then mostly traumatic (such at least is my opinion), except the periodic outbreaks of cerebro-spinal meningitis (epizootic).

We all know that in our private practice there are many ordinary sporadic diseases that cause more deaths than any of the nervous affections. But here is the enzootic staggers prevailing year after year, destroying hundreds of horses (even in the few counties visited by me), and the disease not classified, nor its cause known, and consequently prophylactic or therapeutic treatment is experimental, to say the least. For reasons previously given, I do not think this disease is epizootic cerebro-spinial meningitis. Additional investigation enables me to say to a certainty that it will again appear in the same localities and on the same farms that it has appeared this year or in former years. This almost points to a disease as peculiar to the South as barsati is to India, or as peculiar to the horses of the South as some fevers are to the human being. It may be as much so as the cause of splenic fever in cattle, but of a different nature. If it were not for the occasional outbreaks far from the localities where the disease always occurs we could say that it was peculiar to certain sections of the South, but if the occasional outbreaks are the same disease, then, of course, the same cause comes into existence under extraordinary circumstances, such as, for instance, unusually prolonged rainy season and consequent high waters, or something else not understood. As diseases peculiar to certain countries or peculiar to parts of certain countries must be studied where they occur, so must this disease be studied where its cause certainly is indigenous, and as the South is almost destitute of veterinary sur