ACUTE GLANDERS IN THE HUMAN SUBJECT. 353 
tion. Only one case in fifteen of acute glanders recovered 
of those alluded to in Dr. Williams’s treatise already quoted. 
Dr. Elliotson says, “ all attempts to cure the acute form of 
the disease have hitherto failed;” and he gives the details of 
four cases, all of which proved fatal. The treatment he 
-adopted was of a mixed and doubtful character, consisting of 
the administration of sedatives and wine. Rayer advises 
purgings and large doses of acetate of ammonia, — which is a 
favorite remedy with veterinary surgeons, — with local anti- 
septics, such as turpentine, creosote, &c. But all these re- 
medial measures appear to have proved equally fruitless in 
acute equinia ; in the chronic form of the disease, the tropical 
application of the more powerful antiseptics has been happily 
attended with greater success. In the cases of chronic glan- 
ders treated by Dr. Elliotson, the employment of a solution 
of creosote, injected into the nostrils, was attended with 
complete success. All the cases of acute glanders collected 
and detailed in the number of the Association Journal men- 
tioned above proved fatal, with the exception of two under 
the care of Dr. Mackenzie, to which I shall presently more 
particularly refer. Dr. Cockburn’s case, reported in the 
Association Journal , No. 1 2 , terminated fatally, in spite of the 
most active and energetic remedies ; these consisted chiefly 
of sedatives and hydrochloric acid internally, with poultices 
locally to the gangrenous pustules. 
The treatment adopted successfully in the case of my 
patient, recommended by Dr. Mackenzie, is identical with 
that pursued by him, with the like satisfactory results, in the 
two cases above alluded to, which were exclusively under his 
care. The emetic of ipecacuanha, and the incising the Whar- 
tonian ducts, — two other remedial measures adopted by Dr. 
Mackenzie in previous instances, — were not put in force with 
regard to my patient, as not being required by the exigencies 
of the case. And I am of opinion, that the thanks of the 
profession are justly due to this gentleman for suggesting not 
so much, perhaps, the chief remedy itself (as we find mention 
of its unsuccessful exhibition by other writers), as the proper 
mode of its administration, so as to secure its full curative 
effects. In the report of his first case, which I spoke of in 
the commencement, Dr. Mackenzie says : “Ammonia is re- 
ported to have been given in glanders, but without success ; 
and the same remark has been made with reference to its 
exhibition in scarlet fever. But it is not so much to the 
medicine as to the method of giving it, that we are, I appre- 
hend, to look for beneficial results.” 1 am sure you will 
all allow this to be a sound and correct position, and is, indeed, 
more or less applicable to the administration of all active 
