CAUSES OF GLAxNDEllS. 211 



local disease, and cannot be communicated by effluvia, but that its 

 2)roj)agatio}i must he accomplished by the absorption of its virus. 

 It is very well known that the cow-pox is transferred from one 

 animal to another by inoculation, yet it is universally allowed not 

 to be infectious*. The lues venerea is also conveyed from one 

 person to another by the absorption of its virus ; but there is no 

 instance where it has given the infection by a vapourt. And the 

 reason assigned for this is, that it is considered as a local disease, 

 affecting particular parts." — " Now there is no disease incident to 

 an animal that is more local and specific than chronic glanders. I 

 have seen an instance where the surface occupied by the disease could 

 have been covered by the end of the thumb ; and in many others, 

 the whole circumference of the diseased surface did not exceed three 

 inches. From this circumstance, and the numerous instances I have 

 seea of horses that have stood with those really glandered escaping 

 the disease, and of others being affected with it where no infection 

 could possibly be traced, I am decidedly of opinion the disease 

 cannot be communicated by ejfluvia ; but that, in order to propagate 

 it, it is necessary that the matter discharged from the nostrils be 

 applied to the action of the absorbents in its most recent state, for 

 which purpose a perforation must be previously made through the 

 skin ; and in this w^ay most of the animal poisons, the vaccine 

 virus, the poison of the viper, the saliva of the dog, &c., are intro- 

 duced into the system ; that is, either with the point of the lancet, 

 the teeth of the animal, accidental wounds, or excoriation. If the 

 mucus issuing from the nostrils of the horse be so infectious as it 

 is generally supposed, how is it that those animals which have 

 access to the places where they stanql, and in which they are 

 frequently confined, escape the disease ] — especially dogs, who 

 also feed on such horses iminediately after death, when the 

 noxious influence of the matter retained in the nostrils must be 

 greater than after it has remained for years in a stable. It is very 

 well known, that horses are affected with hydrophobia when bitten 

 by a mad dog. It is reasonable, therefore, to suppose that, if 

 glanders were equally contagious, the disease would be equally 



* Edinburgh Review. 



I Hunter on tlie Venereal Dibcase. 



