195 



THE CAUSES OF GLANDERS 



May be considered under the general heads of PREDISPOSING 

 and EXCITING. 



PREDISPOSITION may lurk in breed, in constitution, in age; 

 or it naay be generated through the influence of soil, climate, ali- 

 ment, &c. 



Breed, we have, I think, pretty satisfactory evidence, carries 

 with it predisposition to certain diseases : to use a vulgar but ex- 

 pressive phraseology — '' they run in the blood." Periodic oph- 

 thalmia is, perhaps, the most striking instance of this* ; roaring, 

 according to many authorities, is anothert. Whether glanders 

 or farcy can be ranked in the class of hereditary maladies I am 

 not prepared to say : LeblanC hesitates not to assert that it can. 

 I should certainly give it as my opinion that insomuch as tender 

 or delicate 



Constitutions are inherited by horses, to the same extent 

 they become predisposed to certain diseases — to those in particular 

 affecting the respiratory organs, and with these to glanders ; aud 

 the same appear to be the notions of Dupuy, when he informs us 

 that the " lank, ill-conditioned horse, the one that is soft in con- 

 stitution, and soon knocked up at his work," is the subject the most 

 likely to breed or contract " the tuberculous affection," as he calls 

 glanders and farcy. Furthermore, a constitution originally strong 

 and resistant may be reduced to a weak or " ill-conditioned," sus- 

 ceptible state, by bad keep, over-work, exposure to cold and wet, 

 &c. ; or through the failure of any of its principal organs, especially 

 of the lungs. Constitutional predisposition may, therefore, prove 

 to be either natural or acquired. 



Age, we well know, has considerable influence in predisposing 

 horses to take disease of the air-passages — to take catarrh, bron- 

 chitis, strangles, glanders : we have no reason, however, to sup- 

 pose that this influence is operative in the case of glanders in par- 

 ticular ; for the same reason that a young horse is more likely to 



* See part i, vol. iii, of the Hippopathology, page 90, et sequent. 

 t See vol. ii of the Hippopathology, page 49. 



