244 



A DICTIONARY. 



of any of these diseases, [many of them are 

 improperly treated], farcy, or glanders, is 

 the result. The disease of every animal 

 will, therefore, assume a character accord- 

 ing to the state of the system." Mr. Perci- 

 vall, V. S., says : " The state of the body, or 

 constitution, will always have considerable 

 influence on the character and tendency of 

 disease. In horses whose bodies are, and 

 have long been, in an unthriving and un- 

 healthy condition, a common swollen leg 

 will occasionally run into farcy ; and a com- 

 mon cold or strangles, or an attack of influ- 

 enza, be followed by glanders. In other 

 cases, such unfortunate sequels will super- 

 vene without any ostensible or discoverable 

 cause." The great fault of those who have 

 employed their talents in the investigation 

 of the subject (glanders) is, that they take 

 hold of the wrong end of it : they are 

 engaged in attempting to discover the 

 " specific poison," where none exists, when 

 their time would be more profitably engaged 

 in studying the principles of a system of 

 medication that would rid the system of 

 these early exciting causes, viz., common 

 colds, etc., and thus prevent this great bug- 

 bear, glanders. The author can at any 

 time, within a period of a few months, and 

 without the assistance of " specific poison," 

 manufacture a case of genuine glanders out 

 of the following materials : A horse would 

 be selected — and many such could be found 

 in the city of Boston — whose general health 

 shall be impaired ; let the surface be ob- 

 structed by standing in a shower of rain, 

 without anything to protect the animal 

 from the pelting storm ; then put him into 

 a stall near the door, where a current of 

 cold air will pass the hind extremities : he 

 remains in this situation during the night. 

 On the following morning, the animal ap- 

 pears dull, and is off' his feed. It is soon 

 ascertained that he has taken cold; now 

 treat him according to the kiU-or-ciu"e prac- 

 tice : " If there is difficulty of breathing, and 

 the throat is sore, — or, in other words, the 

 usual symptoms, — the fiirst thing to be 

 done is, to bleed largely, until the horse 

 faints. He should then be put into a cool 



place. It is often necessary to repeat the 

 bleeding two or three times. If the throat is 

 very sore, blister the part." (See Canthar- 

 iDEs.) ^The secretions now become im- 

 paired, there is loss of appetite, the coat 

 stares ; there is a dull, sleepy appearance 

 about the animal ; the discharge from the 

 nostrils now assumes an acrimonious and 

 putrid character, which, acting chemically 

 on the membrane of the nose, constitutes 

 ulceration : the latter corrode the cartilage 

 and bones, and glanders is the result. Now 

 we will view it in another form. The ani- 

 mal has taken cold (see Catarrh) ; the 

 lungs — from previous disease, and the sub- 

 sequent inhalation of impure air in a hot 

 and crowded stable — are incapacitated, 

 and their power to purify and vitalize the 

 blood is destroyed; hence we have deposits 

 of morbific matter on the mucous mem- 

 brane, which corrode, ulcerate, and finally 

 attack the substance of the lungs, and 

 tubercle is the result, which may terminate 

 in glanders. The expectoration, or passage 

 of acrimonious humors through the nostril 

 of the horse from the lungs, does, in its pas- 

 sage, irritate the schneiderian membrane at 

 a point where it is in immediate contact 

 with ossific or cartilaginous structure, and 

 sufficiently accounts for the ulcers found in 

 the nostrils in the above case. We do not 

 hesitate to say that glanders can be pro- 

 duced without infection, or contagion, and 

 that a common cold or catarrh, neglected or 

 improperly treated, will often terminate in 

 glanders. IVIr. Vines, V. S., states "that 

 the practice of physicing horses, and expos- 

 ing them to wet and cold, when they have 

 common catarrh, will produce confirmed 

 glanders." 



According to the testimony of IVIr. G. 

 Fenwick, V. S., of London, " Glanders is 

 a symptom of tubercles in the lungs in nine 

 times out of ten ; " hence, when a horse 

 has taken cold, and the surface is obstructed, 

 the prudent owner wiU endeavor to force a 

 crisis ; that is, to open the pores of the skin, 

 and promote perspiration. This can be 

 done by the use of warmth and moisture 

 externally, and the administration of warm, 



