REVIEW. 
330 
toms of distemper, it is their custom to separate him from the 
rest. Thus is a remarkable coincidence of opinion established 
between scientific and vulgar opinion. 
4. It is true, avers M. Charlier, that men high in the 
veterinary profession are anti-contagionists ; though, after all, 
this difference of opinion is more imaginary than real, since 
these even confess by their practice the danger of contact. 
3. Therefore, add the committee, even though we had nothing 
else to guide our judgment more than the facts and opinions 
before us, should we feel ourselves constrained unhesitatingly 
to pronounce in favour of contagion ; and in doing so, our 
decision may be viewed with less suspicion of partiality, since 
had we to pronounce on the question purely from our own 
observations, we must, probably, arrive at conclusions alto- 
gether opposite to those of M. Charlier. 
This want of accordance of opinion, no doubt, arises from the 
difference of conditions under which the disease has been ob- 
served by us. He has followed it through all its phases, from 
its origin to its termination ; we only, ordinarily, have had op- 
portunities of seeing its advanced stages, at a time when the 
humoral secretion has commenced. 
M. Charlier has likewise mooted the question, whether dis- 
temper is to be viewed as a depuratory disease, one necessary 
for the horse to have, that is preventive of other ulterior diseases 
of a graver character. And on this he comes to a negative 
conclusion, basing his reason for so doing on the liability of dis- 
temper to relapses. 
We are of his opinion. Distemper being a disease of climate, 
recognizing for its cause, emigration, (change of temperament, 
&c.) may be expected to, and does in fact, make its appearance, 
whenever the organism is exposed suddenly and without transi- 
tion to the influence of new climacteric conditions. 
So true is this, that horses advanced even in age, experience 
under such circumstances a morbid revolution in their constitu- 
tions similar to what colts do, though generally less intense, a 
kind of gourme de voyage , as the dealers have denominated it. 
The possible transformation of distemper into glanders is like- 
wise discussed by M. Charlier, and resolved affirmatively. 
This is true. This sad and but too frequent termination may 
happen from the propagation into the sinuses of the inflamma- 
tion of which the pituitary membrane is the seat, and from the 
formation of abscesses in these cavities; or else under the in- 
fluence of the general fever which precedes the distemper, 
glandered virus becomes engendered. Be this as it may, it is 
no rare thing to see glanders, acute or chronic, appear either as 
