228 DISEASES OF HORSES. 



infectious ; but this matter is by no means certain, and should not 

 be depended on without a greater body of evidence. 



72. The marks of glanders are a discharge of purulent matter 

 from ulcers situated in one or both nostrils, more often from tlie 

 left than the right. This discharge soon becomes glairy, thick, and 

 white-of-egg-like : it afterwards shows bloody streaks, and is foetid. 

 The glands of the jaw of the alFected side, called the kernels, swell 

 from an absorption of the virus or poison, and as they exist or do 

 not exist, or as they adhere tQ the bone or are detached from it, so 

 some prognosis is vainly attempted by farriers, with regard to tlie 

 disease ; for in some few cases these glands are not at all affected, 

 and in a great many they are not bound down by the affection of 

 the jaw. As there are many diseases which excite a secretion of 

 matter from the nose, and whicli is kept up a considerahle time ; sc 

 it is not always easy to detect glanders in its early stages. Stran- 

 gles and violent colds, keep up a discharge from the nostrils for 

 weeks sometimes. In such cases a criterion may be drawn from the 

 existence of ulceration within the nose, whenever the disease has 

 become confirmed. These glanderous chancres are to be seen on 

 opening the nostril a little way up the cavity, sometimes immediately 

 opposed to the opening of the nostril ; but a solitary chancre should 

 not determine the judgment. The health often continues good, and 

 sometimes the condition also, until hectic takes place from absorp 

 tion, and the lungs participate, when death soon closes the scene. 



73. Tke treatment of glanders, it has been already stated, is so 

 uncertain that it is hardly worth the attempt ; however, when the 

 extreme value of the horse or the love of experiment leads to it, it 

 may be regarded as fixed by experience, that nothing but a long 

 com-se of internal remedies, drawn from the mineral acids, can effect 

 it. These have been tried in their endless variety : White recom- 

 mends the mildest preparations of mercury, (Ethiops mineral ; under 

 the conviction that the more acrid preparations disturb the powers 

 of the constitution so much, as to destroy as effectually as the 

 disease. At the veterinary college the sulphate of copper (blue 

 vitriol) has been long in use. Others have used the sulphates of 

 iron and zinc. Clark recommends the daily administration of a 

 drink or ball, composed of the following ingredients : sulphite oj 

 zinc, 15 grains; powdered cantharides, 7 grains; powdered all- 

 spice, 15 grains; of which he gives one or two extraordinary 

 proofs of utility. 



74. The farcy is a disease more easily cured than the glanders^ 

 of which our daily experience convmces us ; farcy, or farcin, attacks 



