8

The same officer also states that "from August 1890 to August 1891
the Chinese traders brought 6,500 mules to Bhamo from Yunnan.
Fifteen hundred of these animals died of surra in Burma, and five
thousand were left to make the return journey. On the return of the
traders to Bhamo in the following year, and on their being questioned
as to the condition of the animals which made the journey in the pre-
vious year to Yunnan, it was elicited that all of the animals, 5,000 in
number, succumbed to disease, either whilst on the march, or on their
arrival in Chinese territory."

The traders further stated that all mules brought by them from
Yunnan on their last journey were entirely fresh animals, which had
not been over the same ground in a previous expedition.

G. H. Evans, in reply to certain queries, informed Mr. Pease that
"the popular idea regarding immunity of the indigenous ponies in
Burma is a fallacy, as they die equally with other breeds, as also do
the Panthé mules, which are bred in the Northern and Chinese Shan
States; so much so is this the case, that hardly a mule or pony escapes
in the Upper Irrawaddy, Mogaung, and Myitchna, so that all hope in the
direction of naturally acquired immunity in indigenous breeds is lost.

"There is a form of bilious fever here exactly resembling many cases
which we have had in the Poona Laboratory. Yellowness of the visible
mucous membranes, and petechiæ on the conjunctivæ, with rapid loss of
condition and occurrence of relapses; and this is no doubt very frequent-
ly confounded with surra. Evans has often been asked to destroy
cases of this description, but, from the experience gained in an outbreak
in 1890, he was led to discard all other symptoms as a proof of the
existence of surra, and base his diagnosis solely on the presence of the
hæmatozoon in the blood.

"In post-mortem examinations of surra subjects, ulcers, in various
stages are present in the majority of cases, shallow, deep, or small as
the case may be. They present the appearance which may perhaps be
conveyed best by the effect produced by a cockroach eating the surface
of a patent leather boot.

"Spiroptera nests are by no means invariably found in the stomach;
in fact they appear to be much rarer in Burma than in the Bombay
Presidency."

The Panthés, who are great mule-breeders across our frontiers,
state that surra kills a great number of their mules every season, in the
valleys between the frontier and Yunnan. The same people also state
that surra prevails in certain parts of the North and South Shan States.

In Burma the stations where the greatest mortality has occurred
are as follows:—Mogaung, Bhamo, Mogok, Katha, and the Upper
Chindwin.