376 DISEASES OF BREATHING. 



durino- inspiration. Consequently the "horse has no tendency to 

 draw into these sinuses any particles which may be contained 

 in the air that he takes into his lungs. Macqueen has 

 demonstrated the impossibility of introducing powdered material 

 into the sinuses by blowing it up the nostrils even with considerable 

 force. He also found that the sinuses of the heads of two coal-pit 

 ponies which had worked for years in an atmosphere more or less 

 charofed with mineral dust, were, after the animals had been killed, 

 free from the slightest trace of coal dust. These experiments, be- 

 sides proving that it is highly improbable that nasal gleet can be 

 caused by the entrance into the sinuses of irritating particles from 

 without, show the futility of trying to relieve nasal gleet which 

 proceeds from the sinuses, by blowing or injecting medicinal agents 

 up the nostrils. 



Old age appears to be a predisposing cause of nasal gleet, which 

 hardly ever affects young horses, except from injury. 



Formerly, reported cases of nasal gleet were far more common 

 than at present, because, apparently in those times, glanders was 

 much more frequent and much less understood than it is now. 

 Consequently, many cases which should have been put down as 

 glanders, were regarded as those of nasal gleet. 



TREATMENT. — Our treatment should be varied according as 

 the inflammation is confined to the nose, or has extended to one or 

 more of the sinuses. In the former case, we may use, say, twice 

 a day, injections up the diseiased nostril, or nostrils, of some suitable 

 astringent, as J oz. sulphate of zinc, 1 oz. creolin, or 20 grains 

 of chinosol (p. 67) to the pint of tepid (say, 98° F.) water. Or 

 perhaps, better still, we may blow into the nostrils burnt alum by 

 means of an insufflator, which is an instrument made for the pur- 

 pose of blowing medicines in the form of fine powder, into parts 

 they could not otherwise reach. It sometimes happens that the 

 horse will violently resist his nostrils being blown into or injected, 

 in which case, we may be obliged to put on a twitch, blindfold him, 

 and tie up a fore leg. If pus be in the sinuses, we should trephine, 

 and syringe out the cavities, say, twice a day, with one of the 

 solutions just mentioned ; having, in the first instance, copiously 

 syringed them out with tepid water. We may also have to 

 break up dried collections of pus in the sinuses with some con- 

 venient instrument, such as a wh>alebone probe. If the partition 

 dividing the inferior from the superior maxillary sinus has not 

 been opened by the operation of boring a hole through the cheek 

 bone, it should be subsequently broken through, so as to secure 

 efficient drainage. If the passage between the inferior maxillary 

 sinus and the nose be blocked up, we may, if necessary, bore, into 



