184 THE ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE NOSE AND MOUTH. 



every infected animal should be summarily destroyed, or given over for experi- 

 ment to a veterinary surgeon, or recognised veterinary establishment. 



There are a few instances of the spontaneous cure of chronic glanders. The 

 discharge has existed for a considerable time. At length it has gradually di. 

 minished, and has ceased ; and this has occurred under every kind of treatment, 

 and without any medical treatment : but in the majority of these supposed 

 cases, the matter was only pent up for a while, and then, bursting from its con- 

 finement, it flowed again in double quantity : or, if glanders have not re- 

 appeared, the horse, in eighteen or twenty-four months, has become farcied, or 

 consumptive, and died. These supposed cures are few and far between, and are 

 to be regarded with much suspicion. 



As for medicine, there is scarcely a drug to which a fair trial has not been 

 given, and many of them have had a temporary reputation ; but they have 

 passed away, one after the other, and are no longer heard of. The blue vitriol 

 and the Spanish-fly have held out longest ; and in a few cases, either nature or 

 these medicines have done wonders, but in the majority of instances they have 

 palpably failed. The diniodide of copper has lately acquired some reputation. 

 It has been of great service in cases of farcy, but it is not to be depended upon 

 in glanders. 



Where the life of a valuable animal is at stake, and the owner adopts every 

 precaution to prevent infection, he may subject the horse to medical treatment ; 

 but every humane man will indignantly object to the slitting of the nostril, and 

 the scraping of the cartilage, and searing of the gland, and firing of the frontal ana 

 nasal bones, and to those injections of mustard and capsicum, corrosive subli- 

 mate and vitriol, by which the horse has been tortured, and the practitioner 

 disgraced. At the veterinary school, and by veterinary surgeons, it will be 

 most desirable that every experiment should be tried to discover a remedy for 

 this pest ; but, in ordinary instances, he is not faithful to his own interest or 

 that of his neighbours who does not remove the possibility of danger in the 

 most summary way. 



If, however, remedial measures are resorted to, a pure atmosphere is that 

 which should first be tried. Glanders is the peculiar disease of the stabled 

 horse, and the preparation for, or the foundation of, a cure must consist in the 

 perfect removal of every exciting cause of the malady. The horse must breathe 

 a cool and pure atmosphere, and he must be turned out, or placed in a situation 

 equivalent to it. 



A salt marsh is, above all others, the situation for this experiment ; but 

 there is much caution required. No sound horse must be in the same pasture, 

 or a neighbouring one. The palings or the gates may receive a portion of the 

 matter, which may harden upon them, and, many a month afterwards, be a' 

 source of mischief — nay, the virus may cling about the very herbage and 

 empoison it. Cattle and sheep should not be trusted with a glandered horse, 

 for the experiments are not Sufficiently numerous or decided as to the exemp- 

 tion of these animals from the contagion of glanders. 



Supposing that glanders have made their appearance in the stables of a 

 farmer, is there any danger after he has removed or destroyed the infected 

 horse?— Certainly there is, but not to the extent that is commonly supposed. 

 There is no necessity for pulling down the racks and mangers, or even the 

 stable itself, as some have done. The poison resides not in the breath of the 

 animal, but in the nasal discharge, and that can only reach certain parts of the 

 stable. If the mangers, and racks, and bales, and partitions, are first well 

 scraped, and scoured with soap and water, and then thoroughly washed with a 

 solution of the chloride of lime (one pint of the chloride to a pailfull of water), 

 and the walls are lime-washed, and the head-gear burned, and the clothing 



