•2:38 CAUSES OF GLANDERS. 



air, into the nose of the sound horse, as we know does take place 

 at the time that horses approximate each others' noses, and smell or 

 sniff one at the other by way of recognition, &c. : in such an im- 

 pregnated condition, charged with the effluvia it has received in 

 its passage over a large superficies of discharge and ulceration, I 

 can conceive it possible, and under certain favouring circumstances 

 probable, the air may become the transmitting medium of glanders ; 

 but certainly under none other. Indeed, if we come to consider, the 

 air ought to be regarded as the communicating medium in the case 

 of stables, &c. I have before represented how unlikely it is for 

 matter in any sort of substantial form to obtain ingress into the 

 inside of the horse's nose ; and have given it as my notion of the 

 pollution, that it was, in fact, mediate contagion : the effluvia 

 generated by moisture and heat from the desiccated besmearments 

 proving the mephitic agents. And besides, glandered and farcied 

 horses standing in stables or other places with confined atmospheres 

 may by their breath and exhalations contaminate the air to that 

 degree that it may possess poisonous power enough to disease other 

 horses. The probability, therefore, is, that the air plays a more 

 important part in the ordinary work of contagion than we are in 

 the habit of imagining. 



Is Chronic Glanders contagious? Some of the continental 

 veterinarians deny that it is ; while there are others who entertain 

 doubts concerning it. They allege that the secretions in acute 

 glanders are acrid and irritating compared to the discharges of the 

 chronic disease, and that the latter, from their mild character, do 

 not appear capable of propagating the contagion. I have already 

 broached an opinion, that the strength or contagious property of 

 the discharged matters, in all probability, varies according to the 

 stage, form, &c. of the disease. I think also, our observation and 

 experience confirm this account of the acute being a more con- 

 tagious disease than the chronic ; at the same time we must re- 

 member, the fact of the communicability of the latter through 

 inoculation has become established*, and also that there are ex- 

 amples enough on record to prove that glanders, though chronic 

 or insidious in it aspect, has the power of propagating its contagion 



* Mr. Fi(!Urs case of Sir P. D.'s horse, at page 183, is an example of it. 



