STATE HYGIENE 557 



1900 and 1901 rise, which is probably due, as he suggests, 

 to the greater movements of horses due to the war in 

 South Africa. 



Though there is considerable evidence that glanders is on 

 the increase, the only real evidence on this point is not 

 available, viz., the percentage of cases on the total number 

 of horses in the country. There is no census taken, 

 which in a country that prides itself on its production of 

 horses is a remarkable anomaly. It is.impossible, therefore, 

 to employ this test of increase, for it is conceivable it might 

 turn out to be more apparent than real, viz., due to a larger 

 number of animals in the country. 



There are fluctuations observable month by month in the 

 number of horses attacked. Hunting's tables show the 

 largest amount of disease is met with from July to October, 

 and the least from February to April ; the explanation 

 he offers of this fact is no doubt the right one, viz., that the 

 hot months are the most exhaustive of the year, and they 

 hasten the development of the disease which is already 

 latent in the lungs. 



The contagion of glanders enters the system either by 

 the air-passages or by the digestive tract. The fact of a 

 healthy horse being in the same atmosphere as a glandered 

 one does not necessarily mean infection. The bacillus of 

 the disease must be inhaled, and such is obtained from the 

 desiccation of the nasal discharge. This source of infection 

 is denied by Hunting, but it appears to us that what holds 

 good for the spread of tuberculosis in this respect is also 

 applicable to glanders. The dried sputum of tubercle and 

 the dried nasal discharge of glanders are both capable of 

 infecting, though we at once admit that this unlike tuber, 

 culosis is not the common cause of infection. 



Hunting's argument that floating germs in the air are 

 not a source of infection, is based on the fact that if this 

 were so it would be impossible to explain the escape of 

 horsekeepers passing twelve hours a day in infected stables. 

 But there is another side to this question, and that is the 

 relative immunity of man to glanders. 



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