ON GLANDERS. 683 
alarm, we put parties on their guard, and verify the old adage, that 
“ prevention is better than cure.” 
An old artillery officer,” who has done me the honour to notice 
my observations on this difficult question in your number for Au¬ 
gust last, and who, I will observe in passing, while he favours us 
with his general remarks, has thought it prudent not to hazard an 
opinion of his own, suggests that, in ISOO, at the time of the expe¬ 
dition to Egypt, glanders and farcy were very rife in England, 
and, consequently, the horses might have been infected before their 
embarkation. The possibility I have neither opportunity nor in¬ 
clination to deny. 
However apparently foreign to the question in hand, I feel 
tempted to dwell on his allusion to the prevalence of the disease at 
the time specified. I would ask him why more then than now ] 
We may obtain many valuable hints from the history of the change. 
As in the case of ophthalmic cataracts—inflammation of the lungs 
—catarrhs—curbs—spavins, &c., every attentive observer must 
know that the diminution in the number of these cases is princi¬ 
pally attributable to the improvements which have taken place in 
the construction and ventilation of stables, for which we are in¬ 
debted principally to the late Mr. Coleman, Will your respected 
correspondent maintain that the comparative rarity of glanders is 
not to be traced to this same amelioration 1 
' He adduces, as making against this inference, the neglected state 
of stables on the continent, observing, that if foul air were the cause 
of the disease, they would never be without it. He forgets that if 
there exists notorious evidences of neglect in the said stables, they 
are marked on the other hand by great advantages, and advan¬ 
tages of a nature to supply an answer to his allegation. Admitting 
that in France, Spain, and Portugal (I specify these, having visited 
them myself), the stables are far behind this country in cleanliness 
and order, it must not be forgotten, that they are extraordinarily 
large—more like barns than stables, with numerous air-holes, and 
very seldom full. In some of them I have seen a stream of water 
running through the centre. 
Now, if it be a fact, that the free circulation of air has been at¬ 
tended with a simultaneous diminution of the number of cases, 
surely “ the old artillery officer ” will not deny that it may serve 
as a clue to the origin of the disease! Pie will not assert that 
these dirty stables, with the characteristic preventives I have men¬ 
tioned, can be brought into comparison with the hold of a ship in 
a gale of wind, and with the hatchways battened down! He will 
allow that more is required than his allusion to the possibility of 
the horses having caught the infection previous to their going 
on board, in order to account for glanders breaking out under those 
