200 CAUSES or glanders. 



disease without mediate or immediate contact ; others maintain a 

 contrary opinion, saying they have witnessed foals glandered who 

 have never been near an infected horse. Tn such a case, might not 

 the farrier or groom convey the disease ] It is sufficient for its 

 transmission that a man or a dog touches the glandered subject. 

 Even the air may, within a certain distance, prove the medium of 

 contagion. There is, however, reason to believe, from an infinity 

 of experience, that the poison of glanders is not communicable save 

 through its coming into immediate contact with the membrane lining 

 the bronchial tubes, through air charged with the glanderous mole- 

 cules, or through eating or drinking. Introduce glandered matter, 

 into a wound in the skin of a horse in good health, and he will not 

 turn glandered*." 



VOLPI, Veterinary Professsor at Milan, makes the bold assertion 

 that glanders '' is caused by contagion alone;" and adds that ''the 

 opinion of those who pretend that this formidable disorder is not in 

 its commencement contagious, but may become so during its 

 progress, is certainly erroneous. This opinion has led some young 

 veterinarians to believe that glanders is not contagious ; and I 

 know one," continues Volpi, " who, coming to a regiment impressed 

 with this notion, neglected to segregate glandered horses ; and the 

 consequence was, the disorder became general." " A troop horse 

 that had a cataract, but was in other respects sound, was sent to 

 the Veterinary School at Milan, to have an operation performed on 

 his eye. The horse was put into a stable along with some glan- 

 dered horses, the disease not being, by the operating surgeon, be- 

 lieved to be contagious. After the result of the operation was 

 known, the horse was returned to his regiment, and, in about two 

 months from his joining, became glanderedt." 



White, of our own country, a man who bestowed a good deal of 

 pains on researches into the causes and nature of glanders, tells us, 

 " Volpi is the only author he has met with who asserts that both 

 glanders and farcy originate in contagion only. I have long," he 

 continues, " held this opinion." And in another place : "It is now 



* Medecine Veterinairc, vol. ii, 1783. 



J Taken from Whitf^'s Trpati'-.e on Voterinarv Medicine. 



