On Mismanagement of Farm-Horses. 



519 



scanty diet has produced^ after some time, glandular enlarge- 

 ments of the neck and other symptoms of struma, which entirely 

 disappeared when the prison discipline was somewhat relaxed, 

 and the nutritiveness of the diet increased.* 



Causes which in other animals give rise to consumption 

 generally produce in the horse glanders and farcy. These dis- 

 eases are essentially the same ; they are induced by similar 

 causes, characterized by similar post-mortem appearances, pass 

 imperceptibly into one another, generally co-exist in fatal cases, 

 and are, in short, but two different stages of the same constitutional 

 malady. As induced by insufficient or bad food, farcy usually 

 appears first, and may continue for some time before any symp- 

 toms of glanders present themselves. Both diseases depend upon a 

 vitiated condition of the blood. This, in the first instance, causes 

 irritation and unhealthy inflammation of the absorbent glands 

 and vessels, which become swollen from the deposition of lymph 

 and the inflammation of their valves. The effusion, however, is 

 of a morbid character, and after some time runs on to suppura- 

 tion ; the skin overlying the part is removed by ulceration, and 

 thus farcy-buds are formed. The poison is carried by the blood 

 to all parts of the body^ and, under certain circumstances, rapidly 

 reproduces itself. Tubercles and unhealthy pus are deposited 

 in all the lymphatic glands and in the substance of the lungs. 

 The functions of digestion and assimilation are imperfectly 

 performed, and the blood becomes so impoverished and vitiated 

 as to be unfitted for the nutrition of the body. Ulcerations ap- 

 pear on the mucous membrane of the nostrils, w^hich is attacked 

 on account of its high vascularity : for those parts first undergo 

 disintegration which require, for their healthy existence, the 

 largest amount of blood. The time w^hich elapses between the 

 first development and the fatal termination of glanders is exceed- 

 ingly variable, being sometimes a few weeks, and sometimes 

 even years. With judicious management and feeding, a glandered 

 horse may sometimes continue fit for work for a very long time ; 

 but the action of any debilitating cause calls forth, with unre- 

 strained force, the latent disease, and hastens on the inevitably 

 fatal result. All influences which deteriorate the general health 

 or vitiate the integrity of the system must be considered as causes 

 of glanders. It sometimes follows influenza, strangles, diabetes, 

 and other debilitating diseases, and is notoriously the scourge of 

 badly-managed stables. Three of its most frequent causes form 

 three several heads of this essay, viz. insufficient food, over- 

 work, and bad shelter ; and all three, as indeed all other causes 

 of the disease, so act as to reduce the powers of life below their 

 natural healthv standard. 



* Watson's Principles and Practice of Physic, 3rd edition, vol. i. p. 205. 



