GLANDERS. 789 



mitted at a distance of ten or twelve paces, might be dependent upon 

 the circumstance that particles of nasal secretion might be thrown that 

 distance by a horse, or because the snorting of the animals produces 

 small bubbles of the secretion capable of floating for some time, and 

 of being propelled by the faintest current of air. The glanders may 

 be communicated from the horse, ass, or mule, to various other mam- 

 malia. Man is likewise susceptible to it, so that coachmen, grooms, 

 cavalry-soldiers, horse-doctors, and other persons having business 

 among diseased animals, are not unfrequently infected by it. In rare 

 instances, and probably during post-mortem sections only, the disease 

 has been transmitted from man to man. The virus of glanders seems 

 to be capable of penetrating the epidermic and epithelial coats, since 

 most cases of infection by it have not been preceded by any wound 

 of the skin. 



ANATOMICAL APPEARANCES. The lesions induced by infection 

 with the poison of glanders consist in peculiar nodules in the mucous 

 membrane of the nose, the lymphatic glands, the skin, the muscles, 

 the lungs, and other organs. At first they are hard, but afterward 

 soften, disintegrate, and form abscesses and ulcers. According to 

 Virchow, whose description of glanders we follow, these nodules are 

 the product of a proliferation of cells. In the more recent nodules the 

 cells are young, small, and delicate, and there are many free nuclei ; 

 in the older ones the cells are large, distinctly nucleated, lie closely 

 together, and make up almost the entire mass of the tumor. As they 

 progress, the older cells degenerate, and become partially filled with 

 fat globules ; they then lose their sharply-defined contour, and break 

 down, so that the nodule finally contains only a mass of detritus, with 

 a few isolated elements. Virchow calls attention to the similarity in 

 the progress of development of the farcy and glander nodules, and 

 that of tubercle ; but remarks, pointedly, that no inference ought to be 

 drawn from the coincidence of these processes, as the transformation 

 of cells into caseous material is not peculiar to tubercle, and occurs not 

 only in that disease, but also in pus, cancer, and sarcoma. 



The nodules which develop upon the nasal mucous membrane of 

 horses, asses, and similar brutes, and which constitute glanders par 

 excellence, are of the size of a hemp-seed or pea. The ulcers which re- 

 sult from their bursting are at first solitary, or grouped, but gradually 

 coalesce, imparting to the mucous membrane a peculiar worm-eaten 

 look. The destruction then extends by the development and burst 

 ing of new nodules upon the edges of the ulcer, as well as upon its 

 floor, and upon the surrounding parts, and by gangrenous disintegra- 

 tion of large portions of its surface. The ulceration also strikes 

 deeply laying bare the cartilages and bones, which die and are dis- 



