CHAPTER XXIII. 

 CONTAGIOUS BISEAS'K^— continued. 



GLANDERS AND FAECY (EQUINA). 



Definition. — A malignant, contagious, and fatal disease, due to 

 the introduction into the animal economy, or of generation 

 within it, of a virus (said by Dr. Struck of Berlin to consist of 

 an organism — tlie Bacillus mallei — about the same size as those 

 of tuberculosis), which, infecting the whole system, shows specific 

 effects more especially upon the Schneiderian mucous membrane, 

 the lungs, and upon the lymphatic glands and ducts. Glanders, 

 and its variety farcy, are capable of transmission to man, in 

 whom the virus seems to increase in malignancy, ass, mule, 

 sheep, goats, dogs, the feline species, and even to mice and 

 rabbits. Cattle, pigs, and fowls resist the action of the con- 

 tagium, even when inoculated. 



HISTORY. 



Glanders was described by Aristotle,^ by Vegetius,^ and other 

 early writers, under the terms morbus humidus, cymoira, capitis 

 morbus, &c. ; and its variety farcy, as morbus farcimosus, vermis 

 equi, vermis volaticus, farcina equi, &c. 



Glanders is a disease of temperate climates, rare in hot and 

 very cold countries. The contagious nature of glanders was 

 for a long time a disputed point ; it is, however, now determined 

 beyond question, the only difference of opinion being its capa- 

 bility of originating spontaneously or not; some veterinarians 

 maintaining that it originates by contagion only, whilst others 

 — and with whom I agree — contend that it is capable of 



^ Aristotle, DeBist. Ani'm., lib. viii. c. xxv. 

 * Vegetii Renati Artis Vettrin., lib. i. c. vii. 



