CONTAGION OF GLANDERS. 
201 
Then there are those in our country, and of deservedly high 
reputation, who, although they admit the contagiousness of the 
disease, affirm that it is generated a thousand times where it is 
produced by contagion once. To them I can only oppose the re¬ 
sult of the experience of the profession generally, and of the agri¬ 
culturist everywhere. 
I will not detain you by the objections of some medical men, 
that a disease cannot be at the same time spontaneous and gene¬ 
rated. I will only observe, that there is a degree of folly in en¬ 
tering with much positivity into any general disputation on this 
subject; for every disease has its own mode of action, and is 
governed by its own laws; and that what is known of one dis¬ 
ease, cannot with certainty be predicated of any other: and, 
farther, that here, more than on any other point, reasoning from 
analogy is dangerous and inadmissffile. To facts alone we must 
make our appeal, and to them alone we must bow. We have 
the undeniable facts, that mange and distemper are both ge¬ 
nerated and communicated; and every English veterinarian 
unites in adding to these—glanders. The only dispute is as to 
the degree of contagion. 
© © 
j\ ot communicated by Contact with the Schneiderian Membrane. 
. —Fortunately it is not so contagious as mange or distemper, or 
some other diseases; if it w T ere, the breed of horses would be 
swept away. I am also disposed to acknowledge, that it gene¬ 
rally seems to need this predisposition, of which so much has 
been said, or some faulty management in the stable, in order to 
render it contagious. Horses have been kept week after week, 
and month after month, in the next stall, and some in the same 
stall, without becoming infected. Experiments have been insti¬ 
tuted, which have shewn that it is sometimes a little difficult to 
communicate the disease. Mr. White covered a piece of lint 
with the matter taken from the nostril of a glandered horse, and 
thrust it up the nostril of a sound horse, and this was repeated 
on three successive days, without the slightest effect being pro¬ 
duced. In a few days the same horse was inoculated with 
glanderous matter, and he soon after died glandered. Remem¬ 
bering what has been stated with respect to the insidious stage 
of glanders, and the possibility of the disease actually existing 
when there was little or no external appearance to indicate it, 
this single experiment might not be thought conclusive. Mr. 
White instituted several others. In three horses the matter was 
introduced into the nostril in the same way, and without effect; 
but it was applied to the fourth on rough brown paper : the 
membrane was abraded, the virus mingled with the blood, and 
