OLAN'DERS.] 



MODEliN VETERINARY PRACTICE. 



[ai,.\NDEU8. 



CHAPTER XXVIIL 



JLANDERS. 



Glanders is a discasp, tlie treatment of which 

 has proved a perfect puzzle to tlie most scienti- 

 fie veterinarians. | 



There is no doubt that it is contagious, and it 

 is generally thought incurable. The vast num- 

 ber of horses which have fallen victims to ' 

 glanders, especially in the army, and in estab- , 

 lishments where large numbers are kept, has i 

 attracted particular attention to the subject, 

 especially in Trance and Italy ; where, so 

 carlv as about the beginning of the last cen- j 

 tury, many attempts were made to discover a 

 remedy for it. 



Lafosse, an eminent French veterinarian, 

 considered it a local disease, and thought he 

 had found a successful mode of treating it, in 

 perforating the bones which cover the frontal 

 sinuses, and injecting, through the opening, 

 astringent and other liquids. 



After this opinion had beep published, some i 

 English farriers made a trial of it ; and others 

 poured detergent lotions into the nostrils, the 

 nose being drawn up for the purpose, by 

 means of a pulley. Attempts were also made 

 to cure it by arsenical fumigations ; and some 

 went so far as to burn out the submaxillary 

 glands between the jaws, or to slough them 

 out by caustics. Tlie various preparations of 

 mercury, copper, iron, and arsenic, have like- 

 wise been used. At the Royal Veterinary 

 College, a solution of from two to five drachms 

 of the sulphate of copper, combined with a 

 little linseed meal, is the remedy made use of. 

 Prom the circumstance of horses having 

 sometimes escaped the disorder, though they 

 have been standing in the same stall or stable, 

 or drinking out of the same bucket or trough 

 with a glandered animal, many have been led 

 to doubt its being contagious ; and the little 

 care that some large proprietors have taken to 

 prevent the spreading of the disorder, in con- 

 sequence of such an opinion, has been the 

 cause of very numerous and serious losses. 

 That the glanders is contagious, has been 

 clearly and indisputably proved by numerous 



experiments, and the manner in which it is 

 propagated has likewise been satisfactorily da- 

 monstrated. At tlio same time, it must bo 

 admitted, glanders will arise from inoculation ; 

 and this not by wilful intention, but from 

 accident ; for, suppose a glandered horse to 

 have stood in a stall, and some of the matter 

 from his nostrils to have hung about the man- 

 ger — a fresh horse coming into that stall, 

 may, from its strangeness, smell about, when 

 any rough substance that he may come in con- 

 tact with, may occasion an abrasion of the skin. 

 Should this abrasion touch tlie poisoned mat- 

 ter of glanders, the horse will decidedly be- 

 come affected. 



In a general way, however, close unwhole- 

 some stables, hard work, and bad provender, 

 sudden changes from cold and wet weather to 

 hot stables— in short, anything that will weaken 

 the animal considerably, is likely to produce 

 glanders and farcy. There will be no longer 

 any danger in admitting this opinion, if, at 

 the same time, we keep in view the contagious 

 nature of the disorder, in whatever manner it 

 may be produced. For, if such cruel and 

 foolish treatment of horses does' not produce 

 glanders or farcy, it may produce otlier 

 disorders, which are often more speedily fatal ; 

 and if it does not actually produce a dis- 

 order, it weakens the constitution to such 

 a degree, that the animal is rendered more 

 susceptible of the contagion of glanders, as well 

 as of other diseases. It is from this cause that 

 glanders spreads so rapidly among post and 

 coach-horses; while, among horses of a 

 different description, its progress is generally 



slow. 



Some writers have said that glanders has 

 often been generated in the cavalry, by putting 

 the horses, immediately after coming from 

 camp, where they are constantly exposed to 

 the weather, into warm stables, and giving 

 them a full allowance of oats. This, it is true, 

 has often brought on inflammation, and in- 

 flammatory disorders of several descriptions, 



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