82 
ON GLANDERS. 
character of that of the human subject. If glanders is generated 
in the constitution of the horse, which I believe to be far the 
most frequent case, that constitution must necessarily be un¬ 
healthy ; it constitutes the susceptibility to become glandered; 
and I am of opinion it is very difficult to produce the disease by 
inoculation in horses whose constitution is perfectly healthy. 
And, by the by, I would here observe, that fine coats and fulness 
of flesh are not in all instances a guarantee for health : I have 
often found, on examinations of bodies after death, chronic dis¬ 
ease of the liver to a very great extent, scrofulous tumours in 
the mesentery of large magnitude, and astonishing numbers of 
worms in the intestines of horses whose external appearances 
during life were of the most beautiful character. It has been 
said that in those cases of catarrh, &c. which degenerate into 
glanders, the seeds of that disease may have been previously sown 
in the system which only awaited some diseased or altered action 
to bring them into operation. I must confess the term seeds of a 
disease is too vague and indefinite language for my comprehen¬ 
sion, unless it means those tubercles or cellular abscesses which 
in some degree resemble certain vegetable seeds. And may not 
those tubercles or abscesses found beneath the mucous membrane 
of the nasal cavities be formed by the same causes in precisely 
the same manner as those in the lungs, and arrested in their pro¬ 
gress to suppuration by a removal of that which gave rise to 
their cause ? And in the same manner as a new inflammation 
brings about suppuration of tubercles in the lungs, may not ca¬ 
tarrhal inflammation forward the suppuration of those tubercles 
in the nasal membrane, and produce the disease locally, or what 
we call chronic glanders ? which stage continues, provided the 
horse is well-fed and not over-worked, for a considerable period, 
without otherwise affecting the animal than nasal discharge and 
enlargement of the submaxillary gland on the same side as the 
nostril affected. 
I fear I am intruding on the pages of your valuable Journal, 
and will now close my remarks on the use of cantharides. As 
regards the curative intentions in glanders, every experienced 
practitioner is fully aware of the success of the tonic plan of treat¬ 
ment ; and as a stimulant to the stomach in marked debility with 
loss of appetite, cantharides has exceeded my most sanguine ex¬ 
pectations : in my practice I have not confined their use to the cure 
of glanders, but have experienced the very best effects from them 
in horses with light bodies, and delicate feeders. I have always 
administered them in small doses, to which has been carefully 
added those indispensable auxiliaries, regular feeding, good 
grooming, and suitable exercise to the condition or state of my 
