210 CAUSES OF GLANDEIIS. 



the effects of a severe fall, by which the frontal sinuses were per- 

 forated. In another, the os frontis laid entirely bare, and the con- 

 cussion so violent as to excite a copious discharge of mucus and 

 pus from the nostrils : and in another, the same symptoms produced 

 by a blow on the superior part of the nasal bones." In stables ill- 

 ventilated, wherein "a great number of horses stand together, espe- 

 cially in barrack-stables" — ''the same air is re-inspired untilit 

 becomes a putrid vapour, totally unfit for supporting health ; and 

 though it is not so entirely divested of vital air as to occasion 

 immediate death, yet, being in part deficient of this essential prin- 

 ciple, the functions of the secreting organs soon become imperfect: 

 hence succeed languor and debility, the usual precursors of every 

 disease ; and, if the cause be not removed, farcy, glanders, atrophy, 

 and death, inevitably follow." Of the exciting causes, '' exposure 

 to cold when hot may be considered" one ; and this combined with 

 the predisposition induced by ''the heat and impurity of the 

 stables" — ''perhaps more frequently produce not glanders only, but 

 every other disease that prevails amongst horses in the army." In 

 respect to "change of temperature" — "I have always," says Mr. 

 Smith, "found glanders to prevail during a campaign;" — "and I 

 have always found," he adds, " that when the greatest heat pre- 

 vailed in the course of the day, the nights cool, and the fogs more 

 copious and heavy, that diseases amongst the horses were also 

 most prevalent." — Of " infection," Mr. Smith says, " as only two 

 cases of inoculation with the matter of glanders performed on the 

 horse have fallen under my observation, in neither of which was 

 the disease produced, I do not state this on personal knowledge, 

 but merely suppose it probable, from common report. I grant that 

 the disease may be propagated by inoculation, and, of course, ad- 

 mit that a glandered horse may communicate the disease to another, 

 when they stand together : but, as I have never seen one case of 

 glanders that could, with any degree of certainty, be traced to 

 infection as its origin, while, on the contrary, the real cause was 

 generally easily discovered, if not self-evident, it has long ap- 

 peared to me, that, where one case of glanders proceeds from in- 

 fection, ninety-nine are produced by the causes just enumerated" 

 "This will be more manifest, if we consider that glanders is a 



