THE SENSORIAL FUNCTION. 113 



pect that a horse respecting which they are consulted is glandered. It ia of 

 great consequence to be sure about this. The safety of the whole team may 

 depend upon it. It may be a puzzling case. There may be no ulceration of the 

 nose within sight. The glands under the jaw may not be close to and seemingly 

 sticking to the bone, which is a common symptom, yet for a considerable time 

 there may have been a discharge from the nostril, and the horse is out of condi- 

 tion. On the other hand, some slight ulceration may be detected in the nostril, 

 but the horse eats well, works well, and is in good plight. It is possible that 

 from the closest examination of the animal, no horseman or veterinary surgeon 

 can give a decided opinion. 



If, however, the horse is glandered, there will probably be considerable 

 ulceration in the upper part of the cavity of the nose, and a collection of matter 

 there. To ascertain this the veterinary surgeon sometimes makes an opening into 

 these sinuses. He may do it with perfect safety. On that part of the frontal 

 bone, which lies between the eye and the pit above it, and above the inner 

 corner of the eye, there is, on either side, a small depression or hole (see fig. b, 

 cut, page 110), which may be easily felt in the living horse. It is what anatomists 

 call a foramen — the supra-orbital foramen. It gives passage to the blood-vessels 

 and nerves of the forehead. 



Supposing a line to be drawn across the forehead, from one of these depressions 

 to the other on that line, and about half an inch from the centre of it — it mat- 

 ters not on which side — the frontal sinuses will be found an inch in depth 

 (compare fig, 6, pp. 110 and 111). There a perforation may be easily and safely 

 made. A little way above, the brain would be endangered, and a little below 

 this line, the cavity of the nose would be pierced. Some warm water may be 

 injected into this hole, with a common squirt, and it will run out at the nose. 

 If there is matter in the frontal sinuses, or any part of the cavity of the nose, 

 below the indirect opening from the sinus into the nose under the superior tur- 

 binated tone, it will appear mixed with the water, and the owner may be assured 

 that the horse is glandered; but if the water flows uncoloured, or simply mixed 

 with blood or mucus, the horse may be considered as free from this disease. 

 The thick creamy consistence of pus, its sinking in water, and its capability of 

 being perfectly, although not readily, mixed with water, will distinguish it suf- 

 ficiently from the natural discharge from the nose, which is ropy, lighter than 

 water, and, when mixed with it, still preserves a kind of stringiness. 



It was formerly the practice to inject various liquids into the nostrils in this 

 way for the cure of glanders. Some of them were harmless enough, but others 

 were cruelly acrid. This practice is now, however, abandoned by the scientific 

 practitioner ; for it would only be a portion of the cells of the head, and a por- 

 tion only of the cavity of the nose, and that least likely to be diseased, with 

 which the fluid could be brought into contact. 



As the frontal sinuses are lined by a continuation of the membrane of the 

 nose, they will sympathise with many of the affections of that cavity ; but the 

 membrane of the sinuses is susceptible of an inflammation peculiar to itself. The 

 disease is rare and the cause of it has not been fully ascertained. It is oftenest 

 metastasis of inflammation of the brain, — shifting of inflammation from the 

 brain to the membrane of the sinus, or communication of inflammation from the 

 brain by proximity of situation. 



The attack is usually sudden — the horse is dull, lethargic, and almost as 

 comatose as in stomach-staggers. The first thing that excites suspicion of the 

 actual character of the disease, is heat in the situation of the frontal sinus, when 

 the hand is placed on the forehead. The lethargy soon passes over, and a state 

 of the highest excitation succeeds. The conjunctiva and the membrane of the 

 nose are injected — the pulse is quick and hard — the horse becomes violent and 



