REVIEW—GLANDERS IN THE HUMAN BEING. 47 
The first recorded case of the transmission of this disease oc¬ 
curs in Rust’s Magazine, published at Berlin in 1821. “ A groom 
employed in the veterinary school in that city, having been ac¬ 
customed to wash the nostrils of a glandered horse, fell sick. 
Red streaks were observed on his cheeks, and a red spot on the 
ala nasi. On the next day this spot had increased to a livid ve¬ 
sicle, and the whole nose, eyelids, and face, were swollen, hard, 
and of a dingy yet shining red. Many livid vesicles, of the size 
of peas, and with very hard bases, were on the following day seen 
on the nose, and the integuments around were much indurated. 
On the fourth day the tip of the nose was gangrenous—the upper 
lips beset with vesicles, aiid an ojfemive corrosive discharge teas 
taking place from both nostrils. On the fifth, the whole nose and 
upper lip were gangrenous, and pustules like the others rose on 
the forehead. On the sixth day, more pustules arose on the fore¬ 
head, and the nose and upper lip were black, and cold, and sense¬ 
less. On the seventh day, red spots, quickly suppurating, rose 
on various parts of the body, particularly the fore arms and legs ; 
the nose was nearly stopped up, the discharge from it mixed with 
blood, and so corrosive as to destroy a portion of the slough of the 
upper lip. On the eighth day livid pustules were numerous over 
the body, and nearly the whole of the face was gangrenous. 
*‘The pericranium, and especially of the frontal bone, was sown, 
as it were, w'ith yellow pustules (tubercles?) of the size of millet 
seeds, and the bones below were sound. The bones of the nose 
w'ere decidedly carious, while the other bones of the face were 
sound. Under every part of the skin, where the earliest pustules 
took place, the cellular membrane was changed to a gelatinous 
mass. Pustules (tubercles?) were found in the substance of the 
muscles, projecting, as it were, from their fibres, and contain¬ 
ing a puriform lymph, but not clustered like those on the head. 
The fibres around were half liquefied.” This case is stated at 
length, because it is the first detailed one on record of glanders 
and farcy (for we have both of them here) in the human sub¬ 
ject. 
Cases now rapidly increased. Many of them had, probably, 
long before, occurred, but it was not until this period that their 
true nature began to be understood. We will relate only a few of 
the melancholy histories which Dr. Rayer has with great industry 
collected. To some of them we must demur, as presenting the 
characters of some other animal poison than glanders; but feel 
considerable interest in others, because the disease originates from 
one of our patients, and because the victims of it have been, 
with very few exceptions, veterinary surgeons, or those who have 
had the management of horses. 
