268 STABLE MANUAL AND HORSE DOCTOR 



for the slightest scratch in any part of the body is suffi- 

 cient. Horses that are cleaned with a curry-comb are very 

 liable to be scratched in those parts where the bones are 

 prominent, such as the inside of the hock and knee, the 

 shank bones, and the head. To such scratches glanderous 

 matter may be applied by the hands of the groom after he 

 has been examining the nose of a glandered horse, or wiping 

 off the matter from his nostrils ; or by the horse himself 

 transferring glanderous matter from the nose of a diseased 

 horse, or from the manger, or other part where any matter 

 has been deposited ; for horses are very fond of rubbing 

 their noses agaiiLst the manger or stall, and a glandered 

 horse will generally try to rub off the matter from his nose 

 against the manger, the rack, the stall, or against another 

 horse. If a sound horse happens to stand by one that is 

 glandered, they will often be seen nabbing or gently biting 

 each other, or rubbing noses. 



In short, having proved that glanders is thus communi- 

 cated, we can conceive a variety of ways in which a horse 

 may be accidentally inoculated. When a horse has been 

 twitched, he generally rubs his nose and lips with consider- 

 able force against the manger, and may thus easily inoculate 

 himself with a glandered splinter. The parts where local 

 farcy first appears are those most likely to be accidentally 

 inoculated ; that is, the inside of the hocks and knees, the 

 shanks, the lips, the under jaw — where grooms are often 

 trimming off the long hair with sharp-pointed scissors, or 

 singeing them with a candle, and often causing an itching, 

 which makes the horse rub the part against the manger. 

 In this way the heels also are often wounded. Horses that 

 are too highly fed and little worked are liable to prurient 

 humours, which make them nab or bite their skin, and 

 scratch the hind leg with the opposite foot ; and we may 

 often see them bite, rub with the nose, and scratch with the 

 hind foot, alternately, the other leg. 



The disorder, too, w^ould probabl}^ be more readily caught 

 by eating the glanderous matter mixed with oats or hay, 

 than by drinking it with water, as in the former case it is 

 so intimately mixed with the food by mastication. 



Having treated of the several ways in which glanders 

 may be propagated, the modes of prevention almost suggest 

 themselves. The glanderous matter exposed to the gas 

 arising from a mixture of common salt, magnesia, and oil 



