XXVi. 
and found that it neutralised, or at any rate diminished, the effects of animal 
poisons. A striking experiment was made with the muco-purulent discharge 
from a glandered horse. Forty-five grains were injected into the thigh veins 
of two strong dogs, one of which for several days previously had received 
two drachms of sulphite of sodium daily. Both became drowsy and panted, 
but the one protected by the previous administration of the sulphite, although 
at first seeming to suffer most from the injection, was in a few hours able to eat, 
and was next day in tolerable health. The other, however, became more drowsy, 
and stood with difficulty. By the third day the limb was tender.; by the 
fourth, mortification set in; and the animal died on the sixth.” The 
importance of these experiments cannot well be over-estimated. 
The fact then appears that in the cases of foot-and- mouth disease and 
anthrax, animals can in many instances be largely protected against invasion 
by the influence of certain drugs. It must not be supposed that these 
measures are always effectual in preventing the onset of these diseases ; but 
it has been abundantly proved that in many cases at any rate they are 
of great value. 
Talking of the prevention of disease, let us here just discuss very briefly 
the causes of disease. 
Perhaps the most important of all is the general inattention to hygienic 
laws. In former times, there was great neglect of sanitation; but now, 
owing to the preventive measures of better and more careful management, 
all diseases have become less common. In the case of the horse, those 
which are doubtless due to the multiplication of germs in the blood and 
tissues, and we include among these strangles, influenza, glanders, farcy, 
purpura, horse-pox, and anthrax; as well as many other diseases in all 
animals, are most probably largely on the decrease in this country. There 
is now more attention to drainage, and the general laws of hygiene are more 
carefully attended to, than was the case in earlier times. 
However, just as all other progress is marked by more or ess 
rhythmical waves, so also in the case of diseases, periods characterised by 
outbreaks of exceptional intensity and virulence alternate with seasons 
marked by epidemics of less extent and diminished severity. At certain 
times, glanders becomes more prevalent-among horses, and afterwards it 
again makes its appearance more rarely. When a contagious disease breaks 
out in great severity, or when it occurs with more than ordinary frequency, as 
arule, the cause or causes can be found. Some flagrant hygienic fault or 
omission, or the importation of diseases from abroad, is generally at the root 
of outbreaks of disease among stock. Still the average number of cases 
which have occurred annually during the last five or six years, is much less 
than in past times. This is no doubt largely due to the injunctions ordered 
by the Contagious Diseases (Animals’) Act; but, did not our regard for 
cleanliness and hygiene alike progress, such laws would have but a 
_temporary value. 
A pnoelser of the causes of disease is of primary value to owners of 
stock. We often hear that so-and-so has hada “run of bad luck.” This, 
