CHAPTEE XXXI. 



GLANDERS. 



GLANDERS is a specific inocalable disease of equines, characterised 

 by the formation of nodules and suppurating tumours, with which 

 characteristic bacilli are associated. The disease has been known 

 from very early times. It is described in books of the sixteenth 

 century and in very early treatises on farriery. It attacks horses, 

 asses, and mules. Man and many of the lower animals can be 

 readily inoculated, but cattle and swine have an immunity. The 

 disease is especially prevalent in towns, or wherever horses may be 

 crowded together without those sanitary arrangements which are 

 so much attended to in private stables ; and in large establishments 

 fresh horses are being constantly introduced to replace others, and 

 thus the opportunities for the importation of the disease are multi- 

 plied. The disease varies in its virulence. It may occur in a form 

 which proves fatal in a few days, or it may exist for months or 

 years without attracting notice, and yet be capable of being trans- 

 mitted to other animals. The term "farcy" is applied when the 

 disease manifests itself in the form of tumours in the skin. 



Glanders in the horse most commonly produces ulcer ation of the 

 nostrils and enlargement of the glands. It commences in the form 

 of nodules of the mucous membrane resembling miliary tubercles, 

 and, like them, consisting of a collection of round cells. They 

 suppurate and coalesce, forming irregular ulcers and raised, congested 

 nodules. The lymphatic glands become enlarged and suppurate, 

 and the disease extends to the respiratory organs. In the lungs, in 

 the early stage, the disease is readily mistaken for tuberculosis. 

 The nodules suppurate, and cavities are formed, but they do not 

 tend to caseate. A glairy or muco- purulent discharge from the 

 nostrils should lead to very careful inspection, with every possible 

 precaution ; and it will probably be easy to detect the ulceration of 

 the nostrils. In other cases there may be slight discharge from the 



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