GLANDEItS.] 



MODERN VKTKKINAKV I'KACTICE. 



[ULANDEBS. 



i^landercd horse, to the nostrils of a sound one, 

 even though a piece of lint soaked in the 

 matter is put up the nostrils, and kept in con- 

 tact with the pituitary membrane tor a short 

 time, or even if the matter is thrown up the 

 nostrils by a syringe. But if the smallest 

 quantity is applied in the way of inoculation, 

 either to the membrane of the nostrils, or to 

 any part of the body, there will be produced a 

 glamleroua ulcer, from which farcy-buds and 

 corded lymphatics will proceed. After a short 

 time the poison will get into the circulation, 

 and the horse will be completely glandered. 



The circumstance of glanders not being 

 communicated by a]iplying matter to the nos- 

 trils, enables us to account for a horse 

 escaping the disorder, as he sometimes does, 

 after being put into a glandered stable, or 

 standing by the side of a diseased animal. 

 AYe have great reason to believe that glanders 

 is frequently communicated by accidental in- 

 oculation. Glanders can also be communi- 

 cated by the air, by the effluvium which issues 

 from the glandered horse, ia the same way 

 that putrid fever is communicated ; yet we 

 knew a traveller who used to journey from 

 Deptford to London daily, and who kept two 

 liorses in the same stable, one of whicli was 

 highly glandered, and remained so for three 

 years ; but the other horse never caught the 

 infection, which would lead to the supposition 

 that there must be, in some instances, a 

 predisposition to the disease before it can be 

 caught. Glanders, it has been said, cannot 

 be produced by the matter applied to an old 

 wound or ulcer ; but of this we have great 

 doubts. A sound horse has been inoculated 

 with glanderous matter which had been mixed 

 with ten times its weight of water. This pro- 

 duced some degree of inflammation, and a 

 small ulcer of a suspicious nature ; but after 

 two or three days the ulcer got quite well. 

 This shows that glanderous matter may be so 

 far weakened by dilution with water, saliva, or 

 the watery secretion from the lower part of a 

 glandered horse's nostrils, wjen be has the 

 affection in a very slight degree only, as to 

 render its being incapable of communication to 

 others. On the other hand, when a large 

 opening is made in the skin of a sound horse, 

 and a piece of tow or lint, soaked in the glan- 

 derous matter, is put into it, in the manner 



that rowels are inserted, the disorder is com- 

 municated iu 80 violent a degree, that tlio 

 animal is destroyed by it, generally in a few 

 days. The same efl'ect may be produced if 

 glanderous matter is mi.xed with a little warm 

 water, and injected into the jugular vein of a 

 sound horse. 



A horse affected with glanders, may inocu- 

 late himself, and thereby produce farcy. Horses, 

 when out at grass, are frequently affected by 

 an itching, and are apt to bite their heel.i, 

 when the flow of matter from the nostrils in- 

 oculates them, and produces farcy. The pos- 

 sibility of this circumstance taking place may 

 be easily proved by inoculating a glandered 

 animal iu any part of his body with some of his 

 own matter. There are many ways in which 

 a sound horse may be accidentally inoculated 

 with the matter of glanders, for the slightest 

 scratch in any part of the body is sufficient. 

 Horses that are cleaned with a curry-comb, 

 are very liable to be scratched iu those parts 

 where the bones are most prominent ; such aa 

 on the inside of the hock, the knee, and on 

 the shank-bones. To such scratches glan- 

 derous matter may be applied even by tlie 

 hands of the groom, after he has been examin- 

 ing the nose of a glandered horse, or wiping off 

 the matter from his nostrils. It may, also, be 

 done by the horse himself transferring glan- 

 derous matter from the nose of a diseased 

 animal, or from the manger, or other part 

 where any matter has been deposited ; for 

 horses are very fond of rubbing their noses 

 against the manger or stall ; and a glandered 

 animal will generally rub off the matter from 

 his nose against the manger, the rack, the stall, 

 or against another horse. If a sound horse 

 happens to stand by one that is glandered, they 

 will often be seen nabbing, or gently biting 

 each other, or rubbing their noses together, 

 when glanders to the sound one may be the 

 result. In short, when we know that glanders 

 is thus communicated, we can conceive a variety 

 of ways iu which a horse may be accidentally 

 inoculated. On one occasion, at the Koyal 

 Veterinary College, two grooms, who had tho 

 superintendence of the glandered stables, be- 

 came, themselves, affected with the disease, 

 and were obliged to be removed into an 

 hospital. 



AVhen a horse has been twitched, he gene- 



277 



