480 THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 



day after day, for a year or more without contracting 

 the disease, and it is also stated that the virus of glanders 

 may be taken into the stomach with impunity. However, 

 such an exjjeriment, at the best, is a dangerous one, and 

 should not be tried except in the case of a worthless 

 animal, and, if true, proves nothing more than that pro- 

 bably the virus, being alkaline, meeting with the acid 

 gastric secretions, becomes neutralised and inert. The 

 contagious principle occurs in every tissue, and probably all 

 the fluids of the body, but exists only in the fixed form, 

 and never in the volatile form, as is claim.ed by many. It is 

 thought that the nasal discharge is the most virulent and 

 potent in the propagation of the disease. Saliva, bile, and 

 urine have failed to produce the disease in an animal in- 

 oculated with these fluids, but scrapings from the muscles, 

 transfusion of blood, inoculation with synovial fluid, etc., 

 have produced the disease. A horse suffering from glan- 

 ders in the acute form spreads the disorder with much 

 greater rapidity than one suffering from the disease in the 

 chronic form. The vitahty of the virus is wonderful, as it 

 may be dried in the air, remain in that condition for years, 

 and on being rendered fluid by the addition of water is 

 found to be very little, if at all, impaired in activity. It is 

 not rendered weaker by transmission from animal to animal. 

 The contagious principle is present at a very early stage 

 of the disease, and can be communicated even before 

 the glands become enlarged. Boiling renders the virus 

 inert. 



Period of Incubation.— T\\q period of incubation in the 

 acute form of glanders is short, the disease usually appear- 

 ing in from four to seven days from the time of exposure, 

 while the chronic form may appear at any time, from seven 

 or eight days up to two or three months from the time the 

 animal was exposed to the contagious influence. Glanders 



