DISEASES OF THE GLANDS. 143 



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

 has commenced. What is the necessary consequence of this? 

 The weakest goes to the wall, and either the lungs, or the 

 feet, or this membrane — that of the nose — the weakest of all, 

 exposed day after day to the stimulating, debilitating in- 

 fluences that have been described, becomes the principal seat 

 of inflammation that terminates in glanders. 



" It is in this way that glanders have so frequently been 

 known to follow a hard day's chase. The seeds of the. dis- 

 ease may have previously existed, but its progress will be 

 hastened by the general and febrile action excited, the ab- 

 surd measures which are adopted not being calculated to 

 subdue fever, but to increase the stimulus. 



" Every exciting cause of disease exerts its chief and worst 

 influence on this membrane. At the close of a severe cam- 

 paign, 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 9f glan- 

 ders, and with many — as strangles, catarrh, bronchitis, and 

 pneumonia — there is a continuity of membrane, an associa- 

 tion of function, and a thousand sympathies. 



" There is not a disease which may not lay the foundation 

 for glanders. Weeks, months, and years * may intervene be- 

 tween the predisposing cause and actual evil; but at length 

 the whole frame may become excited and debilitated in 

 many a way, and then this debilitated portion of it is the 

 first to yield to the attack. Atmospheric influence has some- 

 what to do with the prevalence of glanders. It is not so 

 frequent in summer as in winter, partly attributable, perhaps, 

 to the different 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 new 



* We are convinced that in this Mr. Youatt is greatly in error. 



