323 THRRAPFUTIC TREATMENT. 



SOLLEYSELL, considering the state of medical veterinary know- 

 ledge at the time he wrote, manifests here, as in so many other 

 instances, extraordinary sagacity and penetration. He tells us 

 that, in glanders, by the use of '' good remedies," a cure even might 

 be effected " if the lungs were not already wasted ;" adding, that 

 " God alone can restore a consumed part." Although, however, 

 he made use in his practice both of injections up the nose and of 

 fumigations, and of applications as well both of the actual as the 

 potential cauteries to the " kernels" under the jaws, and occa- 

 sionally excised them — a practice he found afterwards to be of no 

 effect — and although he administered internal " remedies" to boot, 

 it is evident he entertained very meagre hopes of cure ; for he 

 warns us, that '' when a farrier undertakes to cure a horse of the 

 glanders, you may conclude that hardly he will be able to perform 

 his promise, or that the disease is really not what you imagine it 

 to be*." 



Lafosse, finding the nose and sinuses of the head to be the 

 locality of glanders, and concluding, from the absence in general of 

 appearances of disease elsewhere, that the malady was confined 

 exclusively to the head, " from thence," to use his own wordst, 

 " considered of a proper method of cure ; and after a great many 

 reflections I concluded," says he, " in favour of the TREPAN ; that, 

 by the help of a syringe, one might inject proper and convenient 

 remedies into the nose." — Doubting at first " whether the horse 

 could bear the operation of the trepan," fearful of the result of his 

 experiment, Lafosse commenced the operation on one side only ; 

 afterwards, however, he performed it on both sides, and was 

 " agreeabl}' surprised to find that horses that had holes cut through 

 their skulls preserved every sign of health" — and that the aper- 

 tures he had made evinced '* a good disposition to heal and grow 

 up." A very few years of additional experience, however, evi- 

 dently shewed Lafosse the inefficacy of the trepan ; for we find 



♦ Op. cit., at p. 198. 



I " A Treatise on the True Seat of the Glanders in Horses ; together with 

 the Method of Cure. By M. Lafosse, Master Farrier of Paris, and Farrier 

 to the King's Stables." The Translation and Notes by II. Bracken, M.D. 

 i^ondon, 1751. 



