COMMON AILMENTS 517 



practically safe. The chronic form of glanders may exist in a 

 horse for years, and as ' occult glanders ' be communicated to 

 his stable companions although he is apparently healthy. The 

 acute form, the only one known in the donkey, is quickly 

 fatal in the horse. Its period of incubation is from three to 

 seven days, and it runs its course in a very short time. 

 All animals affected with this form of glanders should be 

 immediately destroyed." In the days of stage-coaches the 

 disease was very generally distributed over the United 

 Kingdom. Now, it is chiefly confined to the cities of 

 London, Liverpool, and Glasgow, and, although scheduled 

 under the Diseases of Animals Act, it increased in recent 

 years, owing to the inadequate means adopted for its 

 repression. In 1895 there were 487 reported outbreaks. 

 Within ten years the number rose to 2304, but fell in 1906 

 to 1066. Predisposing causes to infection are the poor 

 condition induced in a horse by over-working and under- 

 feeding, and keeping in dark, badly-ventilated or under- 

 ground ill-drained stables. The mallein test is a sure 

 means of diagnosis, even more generally reliable than the 

 tuberculine test in cattle ; but it is unfortunately used by 

 unscrupulous owners of large studs to identify affected 

 horses, that are then passed on to unsuspecting purchasers 

 and so carry the disease to new centres. By order of the 

 Board of Agriculture, veterinary surgeons must report all 

 outbreaks of glanders. 



Farcy, the cutaneous form of the disease, also occurs in an 

 acute as well as in a chronic form. " Small, hard, painful 

 tumours break out on the surface of the body, usually on the 

 insides of the thighs and forearms, or on the neck. In the 

 acute form there is fever and swelling of the affected limbs." 

 When the swellings or buds point and break, discharging 

 purulent matter, they form ulcers and do not tend to heal. 



Epizootic Lymphangitis is included in the diseases 

 scheduled under the Diseases of Animals Act. It was 

 imported into this country in 1902, at the close of the war in 

 South Africa, where, as in India and Italy, it was formerly 

 known. " It closely resembles farcy in its clinical symptoms, 

 swelling of the legs and formation of abscesses along the 

 course of the lymphatics, but it can be distinguished from 

 farcy by the discharges containing not a bacillus, but a 



