288 NATURE OF GLANDERS 



tubercles, whether they exist upon the mucous membrane of the 

 respiratory passages, or within the lungs, or the lymphatic glands, 

 or any other organs. 



These little tubercular bodies have received divers denomina- 

 tions : according to their aspect they have been distinguished into 

 crude, soft, and encysted tubercles, and various have been the opi- 

 nions entertained concerning their nature. According to Leblanc's 

 (and my own) notions of them, they present an analogy in physi- 

 cal character to farcy-buds. Examination of the mucous membrane 

 of the nose of a glandered horse will shew, in a certain stage, that 

 it becomes thickened. And that this thickening, which is owing 

 to an accumulation of fluids of a white or whitish-yellow colour, 

 precedes the appearance of the tubercles, the same as tumefaction 

 of the cellular membrane precedes the formation of farcy-buds. In 

 this (thickened) condition the membrane assumes a shiny and more 

 humid aspect than it has in health. Then, upon divers points of 

 its surface, and notably upon the middle part of the nasal septum 

 and within the doubling of the nostril, make their appearance lit- 

 tle white or yellowish white pimples (tUvures), rather prominent 

 at their centres, with borders insensibly declining to a level with 

 the surrounding membrane. These 'pimples or tuhercles correspond 

 to the course of the bundles of lymphatics, and very probably have 

 their seat in those vessels. " At least," continues Leblanc, " I have 

 been able to prove that little shreds (masses elongtes), in compo- 

 sition absolutely like what is found within the lymphatics of a 

 farcied limb, were inclosed within their canals, from which it was 

 easy, with the points of the forceps (d'lm instricmentj to extract 

 them : they proving adherent only in certain places, marked by 

 some increase of redness*. I have found the greatest analogy be- 

 tween these alterations and those which the lymphatic fluid com- 

 monly undergoes in farcy. The two sorts of pimples in the thick- 

 ened membrane, after awhile, turn soft. The lymphatic substance 

 of which they are composed becomes consumed, and passes away 

 with the secretions from the mucous surface. From its degenera- 



* We must be careful not to confound these lymphatic coagula with the 

 clots of blood contained within the small veins of the mucous membrane, which 

 (as well as the former) arc often colourless. 



