THE TRANSMISSION OF PERIODIC OPHTHALMIA OF HORSES BY MEANS OF A FILTERABLE AGENT

Abstract

A filterable agent has been obtained from the humors and tissues of the eyes of horses suffering from active periodic ophthalmia. The intra-vitreous injection of this filtrate produced in normal horses the same clinical and pathological picture observed in the natural disease. This filtrate injected into rabbits produced a different clinical picture, but the essential pathological lesions closely resembled those found in horses. After passage of the filterable agent through six generations of rabbits, it again produced the clinical and pathological picture of the natural disease when injected into the eyes of normal horses. It appears, in this epidemic at least, that this filterable agent was the specific etiological factor of the periodic ophthalmia.