iJOS GLAXDEKS. 



infiaTamation of the absorbents. Even then, wlien the discbarge becomes 

 gluey, and sometimes after chancres have appeared, the horse is apparently 

 well. There are hundreds of glandered horses about the country with not 

 a sick one among them. For months or years this disease may do no 

 injury to the general health. The inflammation is purely local, and is only 

 recognised by the invariable accompaniment of inflammation and in- 

 creased secretion. Its neighbours fall around, but the disease affects not 

 the animal whence it came. At length a constitutional inflammation ap- 

 pears ; farcy is estabhshed in its most horrible form, and death speedily 

 closes the scene. 



What, then, is the cause of this insidious dreadful disease ? Although 

 we may be in a manner powerless as to the removal of the malady, yet if 

 we can trace its cause and manner of action, we may at least be able to 

 do something in the way of jorevention. Much has been accomjilished in 

 this way. Glanders does not commit one-tenth part of the ravages which 

 it did thirty or forty years ago, and, generally speaking, it is now only 

 found as a frequent and prevalent disease where neglect, and filth, and 

 want of ventilation exist. 



Glanders may be either bred in the horse, or communicated by con- 

 tagion. What we have farther to remark on tliis malady Avill be arranged 

 under these two heads. 



Improper stable management we beheve to be a far more frequent cause 

 of glanders than contagion. The air which is necessary to respiration is 

 changed and empoisoned in its passage throiigh the lungs, and a fresh 

 supply is necessary for the support of life. That supply may be sufficient 

 barely to supjoort life, but not to prevent the vitiated air from again and 

 again passing to the lungs, and producing irritation and disease. The 

 membrane of the nose, possessed of extreme sensibility for the purposes of 

 smell, is easily irritated by this poison, and close and ill-ventilated stables 

 oftenest witness the ravages of glanders. Professor Coleman relates a case 

 which proves to demonstration the rapid and fatal agency of this cause. 

 ' In the expedition to Quiberon, the horses had not been long on board 

 the transports before it became necessary to shut dowTi the hatchways for 

 a few hours ; the consequence of this was, that some of them Avere suf- 

 focated, and that all the rest were disembarked either glandered or 

 farcied.' 



In a close stable, the air is not only poisoned by being repeatedly breathed, 

 but there are other and more powerful sources of mischief. The dung and 

 the urine are suifered to remain fermenting, and giA^ing out injurious 

 gases. In many dark and ill-managed stables, a portion of the dung may 

 be swept away, but the urine hes for days at the bottom of the bed, the 

 disgusting and putrefjdng nature of which is ill-concealed by a Httle fresh 

 straw which the lazy horsekeeper scatters over the top. 



The stables of the gentleman are generally kept hot enough, and far too 

 hot, although, in many of them, a more rational mode of treatment is 

 beginning to be adopted ; but they are lofty and roomy, and the horses 

 are not too much crowded together, and a most scrupulous regard is paid 

 to cleanliness. Glanders seldom prevails there. The stables of the farmer 

 are ill-managed and filthy enough, and the ordure and urine sometimes 

 remain from week to week, until the horse lies on a perfect dunghill. 

 Glanders seldom prevails there ; for the same carelessness which permits 

 the filth to accumulate leaves many a cranny for the AA-ind to enter and 

 sweep away the deleterious fumes from this badly-roofed and unceiled 

 place. 



The stables of the horse-dealer are hot enough ; but a principle of strict 

 cleanliness is enforced, for there must be nothing to oSend the eye or the 



