498 OENEEAL DISEASES. 



halation theory ignores not only Schiitz's view (p. 496), but also 

 two very important facts : First, that the act of drying these 

 bacilli kills them (p. 495), and that, unless they were more or less 

 dry, they would be in an unsuitable condition to float in the air. 

 Second, that the nostrils, which are quite as much exposed to the 

 influence of the breathed-in air as the lungs, are much less fre- 

 quently affected, and an outbreak in them is almost always secon- 

 dary to one in the lungs. Also, the supporters of the inhalation 

 theory ignore, or have not considered, the significant fact that 

 only in extremely rare cases does glanders affect the respective 

 mucous membranes of the eyes, vagina or penis, all of which would 

 be more or less constantly exposed to bacilli-laden air. Some 

 years ago, there were veterinary surgeons in South Africa who 

 believed that Cape Horse Sickness (p. 477) was transmitted by 

 means of inhalation, because "there are many cases of horse- 

 sickness in which the lungs are the only organs affected" {Hut- 

 cheon). Since then, the researches of Edington and others have 

 proved that ingestion is almost always the means of communica- 

 tion, and that inhalation plays little or no part in the production 

 of this disease. These considerations suggest, at least to me, the con- 

 clusion that the comparatively high susceptibility of the lungs to an 

 attack of glanders, is due. not to the air which they inspire, but to 

 a special power which they appear to possess, of arresting the 

 passage, through them, of glanders bacilli that are in the blood. 

 The assumption that the lungs have this special power of retention 

 is strengthened by the fact that even in farcy, they are very rarely 

 free from these microbes, and that the heart is seldom if ever 

 affected. The spleen, which is largely concerned in the changes 

 undergone by the red and white corpuscles of the blood, probably 

 possesses this power of retention to some extent ; because, next to 

 the lungs, it is the internal organ which most frequently suft'ers 

 from attacks of these organisms. 



The question as to the action of air as a carrier of glanders 

 can be settled only by very extended and elaborate experiments. 

 We have the fact that horses in the «ame stable as one or more 

 glandered animals, have frequently contracted the disease, although 

 their stalls were at a considerable distance from those of the 

 affected ones, and no apparent possibility existed of the disease 

 having been communicated by contact, either directly or indirectly 

 Against this supposition, Mr. Hunting remarks: "If the air of a 

 stable carried infection diffused through it, we should certainly 

 have found glanders more commonly amongst horse-keepers. Not 

 many years ao:o, there were stables in which every horse was 

 glandered, and yet the human tenants who spent twelve hours a 



