GLANDERS. 209 



nose of tlie customer, and there glanders is seldom found ; but if tlic stabk's 

 of many of oiir post and omnibus liorses, and of those employed on our 

 canals, are examined, almost too low for a tall liorse to stand upright in 

 them, — too dark for the accumulation of filth to be perceived, — too far 

 from the eye of the master, — ill-drained and ill-paved, — and governed by 

 a false principle of economy, which begrudges the labour of the man, and 

 the cleanliness and comfort of the animal ; these ■will be the very hotbeds 

 of the disease, and in many of these establishments it is an almost constant 

 resident. 



Glanders may be produced by anytliing that injures, or for a length of 

 time acts upon and weakens, the vital energy of this membrane. It has 

 been known to follow a fracture of the bones of the nose. It has been the 

 consequence of violent catarrh, and particularly the long-continued dis- 

 charge from the nostrils, of which we have spoken. It has been produced 

 by the injection of stimulating and acrid substances up the nostril. 

 Kverytliing that weakens the constitution generally will lead to glanders. 

 It is not only from bad stable management, but from the hardships which 

 they endure, and the exliausted state of their constitution, that post and 

 machine horses are so subject to glanders ; and there is scarcely an in- 

 flammatory disease to which the horse is subject that is not occasionally 

 wound up and terminated by the appearance of glanders. 



Among the causes of glanders is want of regular exercise. The con- 

 nection, although not evident at first glance, is too certain. When a horse 

 has been worked with peculiar severity, and is become out of spirits, 

 and falls away in flesh, and refuses to eat, a Httle rest and a few mashes 

 would make all right again ; but the groom plies him -with cordials, and 

 adds fuel to fire, and aggravates the state of fever that has commenced. 

 What is the necessar'y consequence of this ? The Aveakest goes to the 

 wall, and either the kings or the feet, or this membrane — that of the nose 

 — the weakest of all, exposed day after day to the stimulating, debilitating 

 influences that have been described, becomes the principal seat of inflam- 

 mation that terminates in glanders. 



It is in this way that glanders has so frequently been known to follow 

 a hard day's chase. The seeds of the disease may have previously existed, 

 but its progress will be hastened by the general and febrile action excited 

 — the aljsurd measures which are adopted not being calculated to subdue 

 the fever, but to increase the stimulus. 



Every excitmg cause of disease exerts its cliief and its worst influence 

 on this membrane. At the close of a severe campaign the horses are more 

 than decimated by this pest. At the termination of the Peninsular war 

 the ravages of this disease were dreadful. Every disease will predispose 

 the membrane of the nose to take on the inflammation of glanders, and 

 with many, as strangles, catarrh, bronchitis, and pneumonia, there is a 

 continuity of membrane, an association of function, and a thousand 

 sympathies. 



There is not a disease which may not lay the foundation for glanders. 

 Weeks, and months, and years may intervene between the predisposing 

 cause and the actual evil ; but at length the whole frame may become 

 excited or debilitated in many a way, and then this debilitated portion of 

 it is the first to yield to the attack. Atmospheric influence has somewhat 

 to do v/ith the prevalence of glanders. It is not so frequent in the summer 

 as in the winter, partly attributable, perhaps, to the difierent state of the 

 stable in the summer months, neither the air so close or so foul, nor the 

 alternations of temperature so great. 



There are some remarkable cases of the connection of moisture, or moist 

 exhalations, that deserve record. When neAV stabling was built for the 



