110 GLANDERS AND FARCY. 



Under such conditions as these, if glanders, either as 

 glanders or as farcy, is not at once developed, the animals are 

 so debilitated and predisposed, that even at some time subse- 

 quent, on being attacked by ordinary diseases of an enfeebling 

 character, particularly in connection with the respiratory struc- 

 tures, they are more liable than others which have been dif- 

 ferently circumstanced to develop glanders. 



Further, it is asserted that even apart from any apparently 

 adverse and debilitating influences, recovery from certain ex- 

 hausting diseases is not unfrequently arrested by the appear- 

 ance of glanders. This has been particularly noticed in cases 

 of diabetes insiiyidus, in mahgnant strangles, lingering cases of 

 influenza, and in scabies. 



The difficulties in the way of our acceptance of the theory 

 of the spontaneous origin of the disease are certainly great, 

 particularly the difficulty of obtaining in many cases sufficient 

 evidence respecting the time and mode of infection, specially 

 so when dealing with the insidious forms. The main support 

 of the theory rests upon the results of a few experiments, 

 which in the present state of our knowledge of pathological 

 histology we are scarcely prepared unreservedly to accept. 



The most significant of these experiments are those of 

 Renault and Bouley, detailed in the ' Recueil de mdd. Vetdrin.,' 

 vol. xvii. p. 257, 1840, in which there was injected into the 

 veins of a horse, selected for the purpose of experiment, 

 healthy pus, obtained from an issue that had been established 

 in another sound animal. Upon the sixth subsequent day 

 there were developed upon the nose specific pustules, that 

 were soon followed by ulcers. Death resulted at the expira- 

 tion of eight days. The autopsy showed numerous nodules 

 in the lungs, with tubercles and ulcers on the lining membrane 

 of the nose. The retro-inoculation of another horse by means 

 of the nasal discharge of this animal was followed by a positive 

 result. 



Laisne ('La clinique Veterinaire,' t. iv. p. 463, 18G4) claimed 

 to have implanted glanders by the introduction of healthy 

 pus into the nasal cavity. Erdt ('Die Rotzdyskrasie,' etc., 

 Leipzig, 18G3), who regarded glanders as a fonn of scrofula, 

 inoculated horses with scrofulous matter taken from the 



