GLANDERS. 477 



CHAPTER XXIII 



Glanders and Farcy. 



GLANDERS. 



Glanders may be defined to be a well-marked malignant 

 disease of a contagious character ; its immediate cause 

 being the introduction of a specific jDoison into the animal 

 economy, and having for its anatomical characteristics chan- 

 crous sores or ulcers in connection with the Schneiderian 

 membrane, the respiratory system being also more or less 

 involved, and having particularly well-marked lesions in con- 

 nection with the lung tissue and the whole of the lymphatic 

 system. Farcy is essentially the same disease, but mani- 

 fested in a different manner ; it is, however, capable of pro- 

 ducing glanders, in the same way that glanders is capable 

 of producing farcy, the two varieties of the disease being de- 

 scribed under the generic term of "equina." It is one of 

 the most serious and loathsome, as well as invariably fatal 

 diseases, to which horseflesh is heir. It is in all its forms 

 communicable to sheep, goats, all animals of the canine, as 

 well as feline, families, to mice, rabbits, etc., and to man, in 

 whom the disease seems to increase in intensity, and rage 

 with greater malignancy than amongst the lower animals. 

 It is, however, rarely met with in any other animals than 

 those of the ecjuine family. 



History. — The disease is undoubtedly one of very great 

 antiquity, having been mentioned by Hippocrates, who 

 lived about two thousand years ago, and the disease 

 probably existed for thousands of years before that 

 time. Vegetius, Aristotle, and many other early writers 

 also described this disease, which has probably received 

 more attention, and justly so, than all other equine ailments 



