GLANDERS. 
457 
membrane was replaced, here and there, by a kind of vegetation, 
like transparent ice, with a slightly green colour. There were 
eight of these morbid productions, which varied in size from a 
small gall-nut to that of a kidney-bean. The superior extremity 
of this cavity contained a polypous production, three or four 
inches long, resembling a pear. The membrane which covered 
it was soft and thick; and on their being scarified a small 
quantity of white fluid escaped. 
The septum presented almost innumerable small ulcerations, 
but which scarcely penetrated the mucous tissue. 
This case is far from proving that glanders is contagious; but 
certainly shews that it may be hereditary. The affection pro¬ 
ceeds from the influence of a vititiated nutrition ; for the foetus, 
being an integrant part of the mother, is indebted for its develop¬ 
ment to products less elaborated and healthy, in proportion as 
the chief viscera of the mother have advanced in disorganization. 
There is no doubt, that we may recognize in the mesenteric 
and bronchial indurations of this animal the first principle of 
the disease, and whose morbid state was afterwards extended 
sympathetically to the pituitary membrane; for, when the irrita¬ 
tion is once developed, it is capable of propagating itself indefi¬ 
nitely, and of attacking successively the principal viscera, and 
affecting them with greater or less intensity, without, for all that, 
losing its insidious character. It is a Proteus which can assume 
every possible form, and elude the closest investigation, and lead 
us to commit the grossest errors, when, as in many cases, the 
lesion of an important organ is only developed by mere sympa¬ 
thetic phenomena. 
There is no doubt that glanders is often occasioned by an 
irritation, more or less developed, of the respiratory organs con¬ 
tained in the chest; and it has already been seen, that it may 
afterwards develope itself in inflammation of the intestinal canal. 
In proof of this last assertion, I may refer to a case which I 
had the opportunity of inspecting in November 1830. A colt, 
eighteen months old, had during three or four months been 
rapidly losing condition; it was then seized with intermittent 
colic, preceded by violent enteritis, complicated with tetanus 
and trismus, with discharge from the left nostril, and enlarge¬ 
ment and induration of the submaxillary ganglions, and which 
complication of disease soon terminated in death. The most 
serious disease was found in the digestive canal, and particularly 
in the small intestines, which contained about four hundred 
strongyli. The pituitary membrane was ulcerated through its 
whole extent. 
