176 GLANDERS. 



any probable cause, and the health of the animal has not appeared to be in the 

 slightest degree affected. 



The membrane of the nose is highly sensitive and irritable, and an uleer, in 

 whatever way formed on it, does not readily heal. It often runs on to gan- 

 grene and destroys not only the membrane but the bone beneath and even the 

 cartilaginous septum. This is rarely the case in glanders ; and the ravages of 

 the chancrous ulcers are usually confined to the membrane. The ulceration 

 proceeds to a certain point its progress is then arrested, usually by nature alone 

 the discharge gradually lessens it loses its offensive character, and at length 



Local applications are seldom available in the treatment of this disease ; for 

 we know not the situation of the ulcer, and if we did, we probably could 

 not get at it. Some have recommended setons. Where are they to be applied ? 

 If the seat of ulceration is unknown, the seton may only give useless pain. 

 Several post-mortem examinations have shown that the frontal sinuses are a fre- 

 quent seat of the disease. Yet what injection could we use ? An emollient one 

 would be thrown away. A stimulating injection might convert ozena into 

 glanders. Other examinations have shown that the superior portion of the cen- 

 tral meatus was diseased. What instrument can be contrived to reach that ? 

 Internal medicines are almost thrown away in this complaint : yet something, 

 perhaps, may be done under the form of a local application. The discarded 

 nose-bag (undervalued at least by too many practitioners) will afford the means 

 of employing an emollient fomentation. The steam from a bran-mash, scalding 

 hot. will probably reach every part of the nasal cavity, and so afford some 

 chance of being beneficially applied to the ulcer. It will, at least, thoroughly 

 cleanse the part. By means of the nose-bag and the warm mash the chloride of 

 lime may be introduced into the cavity, not only combining with the extricated 

 gases, and removing the foetor, but arresting the tendency to decomposition. 



Then there is a digestive a gentle stimulus to abraded and ulcerated sur- 

 faces, rousing them to healthy action, and without too much irritating them 

 turpentine. This may be applied in the form of vapour, and in the best of all 

 ways, by using the fresh yellow deal shavings instead of bran. This digestive 

 may be brought into contact with every part of the Schneiderian membrane, 

 and has been serviceable. 



There is another resource, and one that bids fairer to be successful than any 

 other with which we are acquainted the spring grass. It is the finest alter- 

 ative, depurative, and restorative in our whole materia medica ; and if it is 

 accessible in the form of a salt marsh, there is no better chance of doing good. 



GLANDERS 



The most formidable of all the diseases to which the horse is subject is 

 GLANDERS. It has been recognised from the time of Hippocrates of Cos ; 

 and few modern veterinary writers have given a more accurate or complete 

 account of its symptoms than is to be found in the works of the father of 

 medicine. Three-and-twenty hundred years have rolled on since then, and 

 veterinary practitioners are not yet agreed as to the tissue primarily affected, 

 nor the actual nature of the disease : we only know that it is at the present 

 day, what it was then, a loathsome and an incurable malady. 



We ghall therefore, in treating of this disease, pursue our course slowly 

 and cautiously. 



The earliest symptom of Glanders is an increased discharge from the nostril, 

 small in quantity, constantly flowing, of an aqueous character and a little mucus 

 mingling with it. 



