Glanders, 141 



I think it is best to content ourselves with the knowledge of the 

 mere fact. For, after oil, it seems to me, from our knowing* so 

 little concerning the jjiode in which the great operations and changes 

 that are going on, in the bodies of living animals, are effected, that 

 the splendid and fascinating theories which many ingenious philoso- 

 phists (I will not dig-nify them with the name of philosophers) are 

 ever ready to propound, by way of explaining these inexplicable 

 mysteries of nature, are seldom, if ever, attended with any real prac- 

 tical good. I shall, therefore, bring the argument concerning the 

 good effects of pure air, on Horses affected with Glanders, into a 

 very narrow compass, by merely insisting on the fact of its utility, 

 or rather of its indispensable necessity, in all our attempts to cure the 

 disease. But, as I have said that the ulcers in the nostrils, are to be 

 considered as proceeding from a constitutional, and not a local cause,- 

 I must qualify this general assertion, by admiting that there must un- 

 doubtedly be a point of time, in all those cases where the poison has 

 been propagated from a diseased to asound Horse, (and where con- 

 sequently it has not originated in the individual) when the ulceration 

 in the nostrils, must be strictly and truly a mere local disease. But, 

 even this concession will avail b\it little in the argument ; for, this 

 precise point of time, it will be next to a miracle, if the Veterinarian- 

 ever hit. Thus, the doctrine of analogy, which one ever finds 

 poeple so prone to have recourse to (as drawn from the frequently 

 local nature of chancre in the human subject) ought to be applied 

 in a very limited and cautious manner, in our enquiries, respecting 

 the proper treatment of ulcers, in th-e nose of Glandered Horses. 

 In truth, when all the circumstances belonging to the two cases, are 



Nn 



