380 THE MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. 



action to the surface, then diffusible stimulants may be re- 

 sorted to. 



Improper stable management is a more frequent cause of 

 catarrh, glanders, and farcy than any other. The air which is 

 necessary for the purposes of respiration must be pure, or it will 

 irritate the lining membrane of the bronchia and their ramifica- 

 tions. Professor Coleman relates a case which proves to demon- 

 stration the fatal agency of impure atmosphere in generating 

 this class of diseases. u In the expedition to Quiberon, the horses 

 had not been long on board the transports before it became neces- 

 sary to shut down the hatchways ; the consequence of this was, 

 that some of them were suffocated, and all the rest were disem- 

 barked either glandered or farcied." 



In a close stable the air is not only vitiated by successive res- 

 piration, but there are other and more powerful sources of mis- 

 chief. We allude to the injurious gases emanating from the 

 dung and urine. 



In this disease, as well as in every other, " while there is life 

 there is hope." A horse should not be condemned until he has 

 had the benefit of veterinary skill. We see no good reason why 

 — provided the disease be of a tuberculous form — the animal 

 may not be so far restored, if treated before the finger of death 

 be placed on him, as to perform ordinary work. We know that 

 in the human subject, sooner or later, softening of tubercle usually 

 takes place, and the portions of tissue imbedded in the deposit 

 are at the same time destroyed ; the mingled morbid materials 

 are then thrown out of the body by expectoration, leaving behind 

 a cavity, which Dame Nature, — a very good doctor, if permitted 

 to have her own way — soon fills up with a semi-cartilaginous 

 body, leaving only a simple cicatrix behind. At times, however, 

 the contents of the cavity are only in part evacuated, and the re- 

 mains form a calcareous mass, which soon becomes enclosed in a 

 sac, and is thus prevented from doing harm. Why, then, may 

 not the same thing take place in the lungs of a tuberculous horse ? 

 They are organized after the fashion of ours ; they introduce ox- 

 ygen into the system, and liberate carbonic acid, in the same 

 manner and under the same circumstances as do the lungs of 

 man. The difference in the treatment of each may solve the 



