186 VARIETIES OF GLANDERS. 



and common glanders. In the Compte-Rendu of the Royal 

 Veterinary School at Alfort, for 1841-2, we find it stated, that 

 " the number of animals affected with glanders during the last 

 year has been so considerable, that glanders may be said to have 

 prevailed, and still prevails, as an enzootic, in all the environs of 

 Paris. It has principally appeared among the horses employed in 

 the fortifications, who have suffered severely. The form under 

 which the disease has oftenest shewn itself is an acute oneT — 

 Veterinarian for 1843. 



SUB- ACUTE GLANDERS is the variety of most ordinary 

 occurrence. It commences with the usual signs — slight or other- 

 wise — of indisposition ; and the disease may — though the circum- 

 stance is a rare one — in the first instance assume the acute type. 

 Instead, however, of continuing its rapid course, even after ulcera- 

 tion has displayed itself, both the inflammatory and ulcerative pro- 

 cesses subside down to a state almost of total inactivity : the 

 Schneiderian membrane grows pallid, acquires a leaden hue, and 

 the ulcerations upon it lose their prominent red-streaked borders, 

 and exchange their rugged bleeding bases for comparatively smooth 

 and livid bottoms, throwing up a glass-like reflexion from the 

 lymphy matters covering them. It is evident, the moment the 

 nose is inspected, that the disease exists in the sub-acute form : 

 how long it may continue so is very uncertain ; it will not visibly 

 impair the health, nor affect the appetite or spirits, so long as it does 

 so remain ; the moment, however, any thing occurs to derange the 

 health, or even after a certain time — after a month or two, or 

 three — without any apparent superadded cause, we may expect 

 the acute disease to supervene, and then the destruction of the 

 patient's health commences, and speedily is consummated in the 

 manner already described. Though there be an evident cessation 

 of the external disease, however, we are by no means certain that 

 the inward organs — the lungs in particular — are not all the while 

 affording a nidus for its spreading : in most cases it is probable this 

 does happen, inasmuch as, whenever death has followed from the 

 supervention of the acute disease, we find those organs in a state 

 of tuberculous disorganization. It is this apparent cessation of the 

 glanders outwardly, and the interval during which the disease con- 

 tinues in abeyance, that has afforded opportunities to experimental- 



