-182 GENERAL DISEASES. 



returns for Scotland for ten years show 1,344 horses attacked, of 

 that number no less than 1,265 occurred in Lanark. 



The term clinical, or outward symptoms, refers to the charac- 

 teristic ulceration in the nostrils, discharge from the nose, and 

 swelling of the gland or glands between the angles of the lower 

 jaw ; and to the swelling of the limb or limbs in farcy. A horse 

 with one or more of these symptoms is said to be " clinically 

 affected." 



VITALITY OF THE VIRUS OF GLANDERS.— The microbes of 

 glanders are incapable of preserving an independent existence out- 

 side the animal body for a long period, because they are quickly 

 destroyed by temperatures which are respectively below and above 

 36° and 81° F. " Loffler failed to obtain cultures on infusions 

 of hay, straw, or horse dung. As a rule complete drying of the 

 bacilli of glanders destroys their virulence in about a week. Ac- 

 cording to the experiments of Loffler, a period of three months is 

 the longest time the dried bacilli retain their activity. Cadeac 

 and Malet state that the bacilli can be killed only by gradual 

 drying ; that they resist putrefaction from fourteen to twenty-four 

 days ; and that, when mixed with water, they continue virulent 

 from fifteen to twenty days. Bacilli which are not dried, cannot 

 live outside the animal body for longer than four months. Loffler 

 therefore considers that four months is the maximum period for 

 the infectious material to retain its virulence, and that the pub- 

 lished reports about stables remaining infectious for many months, 

 or even years, are erroneous. . . . For practical purposes we may 

 say that a 1 to 1,000 solution of corrosive sublimate, or a B per 

 cent, solution of creolin or carbolic acid, is sufficient for disin- 

 fection " (Friedherger and Frohner). The microbes of glanders 

 are said to be destroyed by sunlight in about three days. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION.— Glanders is well distri- 

 buted over the four continents of the world; but owing to the 

 wise enforcement of strict quarantine regulations, it is absent from 

 the Australian Colonies. In India, it is common among horses 

 owned by natives, whose ideas of preventive medicine are not far 

 advanced. Although it is seldom found in England among race- 

 horses, hunters, carriage horses, and agricultural animals ; it is 

 prevalent to a very large extent among the commercial horses of 

 London, Glasgow, and other large towns of this country ; the chief 

 cause being the unrestricted importation of glandered horses from 

 America and other largely-infected countries. After the Spanish- 

 American war, great numbers of glandered horses were imported 



