LHWEASES OF THE HOKSE. 513 



infection is slight, but it will not j^ct do to depend upon this excepting 

 under the most stringent veterinary supervision. With good care, 

 good food, and good surroundings and little 'work, an animal atfected 

 Avith glanders ma}' live for months or even 3'cars in an apparent state 

 of perfect health, but with the first deprivation of food, with a few daj'S 

 of severe hard work, with exposure to cold or with the attack of a 

 simple fever or inflamatory trouble from other causes, the latent seeds 

 of the disease break out and develop the trouble again in an acute 

 form. 



In several celebrated cases horses which have been affected Avith 

 glanders have been known to work for j^ears and die from other causes 

 without ever having had the return of symptoms; but, allowing that 

 these cases may occur, they are fso few and far between, and the danger 

 of infection of glanders to other horses and to the stable attendants is 

 so great, that no animal which has once been affected with the disease 

 should be allowed to live unless repeated mallcin tests have shown him 

 to have become free from taint of glanders. 



In all civilized countries, with the exception of some of the States 

 in the United States, the laws are most stringent regarding the prompt 

 declaration on the part of the owner and attending veterinarian at the 

 first suspicion of a case of glanders, and they allow indenuiit}' for the 

 animal. When this is done, in all cases the animal is destro3'ed and 

 the articles with which it has been in contact are thoroughl^^ disin- 

 fected. When the attendants have attempted to hide the presence of 

 the disease in a comnmnit\', punishment is meted to the owner, attend- 

 ing veterinarian, or other responsible parties. Several States have 

 passed excellent laws in regard to glanders, but these laws are not 

 alwaj'S carried out with the rigidity with which they should be. Tlie 

 disease is verv prevalent in Massachusetts, in New York Cit}', and in 

 some of the Western States. It has been almost completely eradicated 

 from Pennsylvania and several other States. 



RABIES IN THK HORSE. 



[SvxoxYiis: Hydrophobia, madness; lysaa, Greek; rage, French; vmthkrankhelt, Ger- 

 man.] 



Definition. — Rabies is a contagious disease which is asuallv trans- 

 mitted by a bite and by the introduction of a virus contained in the 

 saliva of an affected animal. It may, however, be transmitted in other 

 ways. It is characterized b}' sj^mptoms of aberration of the nervous 

 system, and invariabh' terminates fatally. It is accompanied by lesions, 

 inflammation, and degenei"ation in the central nervous s^'stem. It is a 

 disease that is most common in the dog, but is transmitted to the 

 horse, either from dogs or from an}^ other animal affected with it. 



As a disease of the horse it is\iseless to enter into the etiology* fur- 

 ther than to state that in this animal it is invariably the result of the 

 bite of a rabid animal, usually' a dog. 



