184: THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIJIALS. 



in bj far the greater number of cases, infection must take place hy 

 means of this principle when suspended in the atmosphere ; that is, 

 by means of the expired air from glandered horses. Were this 

 not so, cutaneous glanders (farcy) would be far m.ore common than 

 it is ; in fact, it should, under this cu'cumstance, be the j)rimary 

 form. 



Again, were the infection not generally due to a suspended 

 principle, we should have far more cases of ulceration in the lower 

 or exposed parts of the nasal passages, which is rare, while deeper 

 seated ulcerations are more common. 



Again, that a suspended principle is commonly the cause of in- 

 fection, is proved by the numerous cases of pulmonary glanders 

 which occur with little or no nasal complications ; in the numerous 

 cases of pulmonary glanders, accompanied by cicatrices in the mu- 

 cosa of the bronchial tubes, trachea, and pharynx, all indicating the 

 long continuance of the disease, but, with eecent complications in 

 the super-nasal parts, with no evidence of older complications. 



Disposition. — Immxinity. 



As in every other contagious disease, not every horse exposed to 

 infection has glanders. Of 138 healthy horses which Lamirault 

 caused to stand among diseased ones, and to be cleaned, etc., with 

 the same utensils,, and to work with the same harnesses, only 29 be- 

 came diseased — 28 with glanders, 1 with farcy. 



According to Lydtin, 40 to 50 per cent of the horses exposed to 

 natural infection became diseased. 



By inoculation of 23 horses, only 8 became infected. 



The almost invariably fatal character of the disease does not 

 allow us to judge whether an acquired immunity is possible or not, 

 by animals that have once had it. 



"With the present French mania for all kinds of vaccinations with 

 cultivated virus, we shall probably hear of a modified form of 

 glanders being able to give an acquired immunity to natural or fur- 

 ther infection, at least for a time. 



I always stand skeptical to all such assertions — ready to believe, 

 but doubting until the evidence is overwhelmingly ^w or con. 



At present I do not believe in the generalization to which the 

 few Pasteur vaccine experiments have led. 



Inoculation for glanders is no new thing, but has as yet always 

 signally failed. Furnival,* an enthusiastic Briton, claims "to have 

 cured seven bad cases of farcy by inoculation," and was anxious to 



* "Fleming's Veterinary Journal," vol. x, p. 51. 



