204 MR. youatt’s veterinary lectures. 
little doubt whether much dependence can be placed on experi¬ 
ments of this kind. A very interesting one, and bearing on this 
point, was made by M. Rodet, one of the professors of the 
veterinary school at Toulouse. He scarified the pituitary mem¬ 
brane of a horse with a lancet, and then rubbed some matter of 
glanders over it. He also raised the skin from a portion of the 
cellular substance between the branches of the lower jaw, and 
injected more of the virus into the cellular texture. This seemed 
to be making sure of the inoculation. Twenty-six days, how¬ 
ever, passed without the slightest effect having been produced, 
and then appeared a slight running from the nostrils, and en¬ 
largement of the submaxillary lymphatic glands. At the expira¬ 
tion of six weeks, the secretion was more copious; it was be¬ 
come viscid, and the glands were adherent. In ten weeks ulcers 
began to appear on the pituitary membrane, but the horse con¬ 
tinued in good condition; he even seemed to be mending when 
M. Rodet determined to subject him to the influence of mercury. 
He immediately began to get worse, and was destroyed a month 
afterwards, but still having lost little of his condition. 
The Duty of the Veterinary Surgeon in these Cases. —There¬ 
fore, gentlemen, my conclusion is, that it is impossible at all 
times to say what cases of glanders are spontaneous, and what 
may have arisen from contagion: that the greater part of 
those that have been deemed spontaneous, may have arisen from 
inoculation ;—that the numerous cases of undeniable contagion 
would lead us to suspect that it is a frequent, or the most frequent, 
source of the disease; at all events, that it is folly to speak 
peremptorily on the question ; and that if there be doubt about 
the matter, it is the most prudent, and the safest course, to warn 
the proprietor of the horse of the danger to which he is exposed 
on either side, that he may not only pay stricter attention to the 
proper management of his stable, but adopt all necessary pre¬ 
caution when danger threatens. He will be warned in various, 
ways of the injurious results of heated and ill-ventilated stables. 
Ophthalmia, catarrh, pneumonia, will often teach him a painful 
lesson : but if he is taught to believe that glanders is seldom, or 
almost never, communicated ; that not one horse in a thousand 
receives the disease from contagion; he will neglect those pre¬ 
cautionary measures which would have saved his whole establish¬ 
ment from ruin. 
The law is severe against the offering for sale and even the 
working of glandered horses; and the opinion of our ancestors, 
from time out of date, had taught us to beware of glanders as 
a contagious as well as a fatal disease. Let us not, without 
incontestable proof, abandon that which for ages was never 
