584 
REFLECTIONS AND EXPERIMENTS ON THE 
Although I have had opportunity to convince myself that 
strangles is much less contagious than it has been said to be, vet, 
in order to come to a decisive opinion on the subject, I have 
thought it necessary to make certain experiments. It is in this 
way alone that we can arrive at the truth. 
Exp. I. — In May, 1812, l introduced, by means of the fea- 
thered part of a quill, into the left nostril of an ass, a little 
matter obtained from the nostril of a colt five months old, that 
had no swelling under the throat, but had had discharge from 
the nose fifteen days, and which I conceived to proceed from 
immature strangles. On the same day l pushed up the right 
nostril of the same ass a pledget of tow wetted with the matter 
from the nose of an ass that had died of acute glanders, accom- 
panied by farcy. This double experiment was made in order 
to discover whether glanders or strangles would appear first, and 
Mr. Percivall, in the first volume of his “ Hippopathologv,” a work dis- 
tinguished as much by the pleasing perspicuity of its style as by the general 
accuracy of its doctrines and its statements, strenuously denies its conta- 
giousness: “ I would omit this paragraph (contagiousness) were it not 
that I feel desirous to express as my opinion all disbelief in the contagious- 
ness of strangles. All the observation and experience I dare boast of have 
confirmed me in this opinion. Of inoculation for the disease I know no- 
thing. There are those who assert that it is in that way communicable : it 
may be. It is not ‘catching’ in my firm belief* * * § .” 
Mr. Blaine, in his invaluable last edition of his “ Veterinary Outlines,” 
leans likewise to the principle of non-contagion : “Neither is there reason 
to suppose the strangles inherently infectious, though it has been said to 
have been given by inoculation. A number of horses having it together is 
not a proof of its contagious properties, any more than some escaping and 
others having it is a proof that it is not sof.” 
The author of “ The Horse” was, in 1831, a non-contagionist : “ We do 
not believe,” says he, “ that there is anything contagious in it. There are 
strange stories told with regard to this ; but the explanation of the matter 
is, that when many horses on the same farm or in the same neighbourhood 
have had strangles at the same time, they have been exposed to the same 
powerful but unknown exciting causey.” In the autumn of that year, how- 
ever, he had occasion to travel through the greater part of the United King- 
dom, and was in contact with practitioners everywhere ; and, in the follow- 
ing year, addressing his class on the subject of strangles, “ I am perfectly 
assured that it is epidemic ; but there are cases which I cannot explain, 
except on the supposition of its being contagious§.” 
There is no doubt as to one fact — that the greater part of the country 
practitioners, and of those particularly who are settled in the breeding dis- 
tricts, are firm believers in the contagiousness of strangles. 
* Percivall’ s Hippopathology, vol. i, p. 160. 
f Blaine’s Veterinary Outlines, fourth edition, p. 446. 
X The Horse, p. 150. 
§ The Veterinarian, vol. v, p. 342. 
