CONTAGION. '2M 



Supposing he took the contagion at the time tlie other horses did — 

 and I really do not see how this can be, with any shew of reason 

 or argument, questioned — then the disease must have lain dormant 

 in his constitution upwards of fifteen weeks. Nobody can allege, 

 with any degree of plausibility, that the disease was contracted in 

 the barracks, after the horses' return ; for I have never seen such a 

 case in barracks, either before or since ; and it is not at all likely 

 a solitary case, and in the form it did — being similar to the others — 

 would have presented itself at one time and not at another. 



Clothing, Pails, Bridles, Halters, &c. may, each and all 

 of them, prove the media of contagion ; though none of them, in my 

 opinion, are so likely to convey pollution as is vulgarly imagined. 

 Supposing that clothing — and woollen is very likely to do so — 

 harbours the contagious virus, unless it were put directly in the way 

 of the animal's nostrils, so as to fairly admit of any effluvia arising 

 from it being inhaled, there is not much risk of its propagating the 

 contagion. And as for pails, they are in general kept free from 

 pollution by continual ablution. Bridles and halters left uncleaned 

 after use about glandered horses would be more likely to contami- 

 nate the next wearers of them: still, remembering the several 

 circumstances required to favour the operation of contagion, we 

 should say the chances of escape exceeded much those of trans- 

 mitting the disease. 



Can Glanders be propagated through the Medium of 

 THE Air, or through the breath of the horse ] On this mysterious 

 and important question a good deal of wide difference of opinion 

 has prevailed, as will have been seen from the perusal of the abstract 

 we have given of the various notions- entertained by veterinary 

 writers on the subject of contagion. For my own part, I neither 

 put faith in the assertions of those who tell us that the glanderous 

 virus infects the very (out-of-doors) air, nor in the doctrine of those 

 who would deny the possibility of communicating the disease save 

 through actual inoculation or transmission of consistent matter. I 

 think, myself, it is possible, though a very unlikely incident, that 

 the air may become the medium of contagion ; inasmuch as for it to 

 prove so, I should say it was requisite the current of the diseased 

 animal's breath should pass direct, and undiluted with the common 



