81 TKEATMENT OF DISEASES 



Treatment of Glanders. — I am satisfied that there is no spe 

 cific remedy for a pure case of glanders. Experiments on a very 

 extensive scale have been made in England and France, by some of 

 the most experienced veterinary surgeons, and they do not offer very 

 much encouragement for us to attempt the cure of glanders. The 

 fact is, there are very few cases of cure on record, and the same re- 

 marks apply to the cure of confirmed phthisis, or consumption. 



Whoever undertakes to attempt the cure of this awful malady 

 must remember that he is running a great risk of losing l»is own 

 life, for the absorption of the least particle of the virus will cause 

 death in one of the most horrible of all forms. 



My advice is, that when a horse shows unmistakable symptoms 

 of pure glanders, that he be destroyed. 



In cases of suspected glanders, when the diagnostic symptoms 

 cannot be detected, it may be proper to place the animal under med- 

 ical treatment ; for, in the absence of such symptoms, the case may 

 happen to be one of nasal gleet, for which I recommend the fol- 

 lowing : 



Phosphate of Lime 6 ounces. 



Powdered Poplar Bark 8 " 



" Blood-root 2 " 



" African Ginger 4 * 



Mix. Dose, one omice daily. 



In allusion to the curability of pure glanders, it may be proper for 

 me to remark that many men contend that they have cured glanders. 

 This arises from the fact that they made a mistake, and confounded 

 glanders with another disease. 



In view of furnishing the reader with collateral evidence as re- 

 gards the causes of glanders, I introduce the following quotations : 



" The causes of glanders may be considered under the general 

 heads of predisposing and exciting. 



" Predisposition may lurk in breed, in constitution, in age; or it 

 may be generated through the influence of soil, climate, aliment, c&c, 



" Breed, we have, I think, pretty satisfactory evidence, carries 

 with it predisposition to certain diseases. To use a vulgar, but ex- 

 pressive phraseology, " they rvm the blood." Periodic ophthalmia 

 is, perhaps the most striking instance of this.* Roaring, according 

 to many authorities, is another.f "Whether glanders or farcy can be 

 ranked in the class of hereditary maladies, I am not prepared to 

 say. Leblanc hesitates not to assert that it can. I should certainly 

 give it as my opinion that inasmuch as tender or delicate con- 

 stitutions are inherited by horses, to the same extent they 

 become predisposed to certain diseases ; to those, in particular, 

 affecting the respiratory organs, and with these, to glanders ; and 

 the same appears to be the notion of Dupuy, when he informs us 

 that the * lank, ill-conditioned horse, the one that is soft in consti- 

 tution, and soon knocked up at his work,' is the subject the most 

 likely to breed or contract ' the tuberculous affection,' as he calls 

 glanders and farcy. Furthermore, a constitution originally strong 

 and resistant, may be reduced to a weak or * ill-conditioned ' sus- 



* See Part 1, Vol. Ill, of the Hypopathology, page 90, et tequ&nt, 

 t See Vol. 11 of the Hypopathology, page 29. 



