

430 AMErTcAN FARMER'S HORSE BOOK. 



For stable purposes, we consider tobacco the bjest disinfec 

 tant known. It is the antidote of glanders, farcy, and dis- 

 temper; and if it be used in the manner prescribed elsewhere 

 for the treatment of those diseases, the spread of contagion 

 can be effectually prevented. Every contagious disease, in 

 either man or beast, has its particular disinfectant — that is, 

 one better adapted to counteract its peculiar influences than 

 any other substance. All disinfectants are not of equal 

 power, when applied to the disorders of man, that they possess 

 when used in veterinary practice, and vice versa ; but, in either 

 case, a perfect disinfectant is the best remedy for the disease. 

 Reversing this proposition, it may be said that the best 

 remedy for the disease is the only sure disinfectant. 



Tobacco will cure glanders, in its first and second stages, 

 when other modes of treatment utterly fiiil ; and it is the only 

 substance that can be considered a certain disinfectant of this 

 fearful disease. A few stalks or leaves of ^''the weed " burned 

 in an old kettle in the stable, when the horse is attended in 

 the morning, will work wonders in improving the sanitary 

 condition of the building, if any infection either happens to 

 be lurking there undiscovered, or is already in full, fell play. 

 Unlike some disinfectants, tobacco does not materially change 

 the qualities of the infected atmosphere; but its virtue con- 

 sists mainly in its action upon the system of the animal 

 whence the infection proceeds, destroying, or at least neutral- 

 izing, the very source of danger, the poison of jiisease. 

 ^ Sulphur has been known to the author of this work for 

 more than fifteen years as a disinfectant of great value for 

 those types of malignant disease which generate foulness and 

 putridity within the system ; and this is one reason why its 

 free use internally has been so often and persistently pre- 

 scribed in many of the foregoing chapters. It has lately been 

 employed as a disinfectant by fumigation, also. "When it is 

 burned in the atmosphere, sulphurous gas is formed, which is 

 believed to be of great benefit in counteracting contagious 

 influences. But whether it will destroy the virus of glanders 

 or distemper yet remains to be tested. We are confident 



