MEDICAL TREATMENT OF GLANDERS. 
207 
and without any medical treatment. Hence it has happened, 
that almost every drug has, in its turn, been considered a speci¬ 
fic ; and every one, from the wine and oil of Vegetius, to the 
sulphate of copper, and the cantharides of latest celebrity, have 
sunk into disregard and disuse. The only cure, the cheapest 
and the best, and that which you will, in the majority of in¬ 
stances strenuously recommend, is the bullet or the knacker’s 
pole-axe. 
Frequent Deception with regard to the Cure .—Then, gentle¬ 
men, it would seem to be mere waste of time to say any thing 
more on this point; nor would I, if I were not aware of the 
method by which the public have been again and again deluded, 
and practitioners have deluded themselves. It has occasionally 
happened, that, after the administration of a certain drug, or 
when the animal has been left to the “ vis medicatrix naturae,” the 
discharge has gradually diminished—it has ceased; weeks and 
months have passed away and it has not returned—the horse 
has been apparently cured. He has been dismissed from the in¬ 
firmary, and the practitioner has taken to himself a great deal of 
credit. 
Before I can add my mite of approbation, I must know a 
little more about this horse; I must, first of all, be assured that he 
was glandered. I must have testimony as to the chancrous ulcer 
and the adherent gland ; and I must, in such a case, go farther; 
I must have the result of inoculation with the matter discharged. 
Even this will not satisfy me. I must know something of the 
horse afterwards, and long afterwards. I must follow him for 
months and for years. I must not only be assured that the glan¬ 
derous ulcer does not re-appear, but that there are none of the 
strangely-varying and deceptive forms of farcy — no gradual 
withering and decay—no establishment of pulmonary phthisis. 
The horse must not, a twelvemonth afterwards, vanish from my 
observation, and he must not be found dead in a ditch. 
I see the horse well, and at work, one, two, or three years 
afterwards. Am I satisfied? No, not even then. My belief 
in the hopelessness of all medical treatment in true and con¬ 
firmed glanders is even yet scarcely shaken. I must have a 
second or a third trial; and a successful issue of the second and 
third experiment. Even then I am so unconscionable as to 
cling to some portion of my scepticism. I must have the remedy 
tried in another and distant situation, and at another and dis¬ 
tant period ; in fact, under another atmospheric influence, so 
that it shall be impossible for me to suspect the working of that 
unknown and mysterious agent, opposed to which I am power¬ 
less; and aided by which lam, in a manner, omnipotent. Ilow 
