Chapter XI (2)

Such facts sufficiently prove all men have an interest in opposing any conduct likely to generate so horrible a scourge. Man, as a community, is answerable for the comfort of every creature intrusted to his charge. He may refuse to accept the conditions of the trust, but he cannot escape the responsibility. In proof of the truth of this conclusion, glanders is now recognized as one of those incurable diseases, generated by neglect, to which the human being is liable, in every hospital throughout the kingdom.

Why is the legislature behind the medical profession in the extent of its recognitions? Any man may now, according to law, drive or ride a glandered animal through the crowded streets of any town in the three kingdoms. He may, without fear of punishment, endanger the lives of the unsuspecting wayfarers, whom it is the especial province of the Parliament to protect. Why should not the glandered stable be detected, and the animals, dangerously diseased, be slaughtered? Why should any man be allowed to retain, and openly use as property, that which is perilous to society; and wherefore should law protect him, when harboring pestilence for the sake of profit?

That the foregoing observations are correctly based, is proved by the pest becoming less common as the public have morally improved--only, why leave so immediate an evil to be cured by so slow a process? Years ago, an affected horse, led through the streets, was an almost hourly occurrence. Since that time we have improved, and such sights are no longer common. Therefore the morality here alluded to is not of limited meaning. It implies improvements in drainage, and all those innovations by which life has been made more secure. He is the truest benefactor of mankind who lessens the ills to which existence is exposed.

Glanders is the phthisis of the horse. Phthisis is, in some countries, esteemed even more dangerously contagious than glanders and farcy are in England admitted to be. Man, however, employs a handkerchief; the plates off which he feeds are washed. The manger is never cleansed; and the discharge soils the boards on which the corn reposes.

The lungs of very many horses, however, which have perished of the pest, will exhibit numerous tubercles; these, in the human subject, are considered conclusive evidence as to the existence of phthisis.

(A portion of the left lung has been excised, to show the ravage of the disease.)]

By some practitioners glanders is esteemed a purely local disorder. In books, schools, and elsewhere, the running from the nose has been pointed out as the disease itself; and the situation of the affection is said to be the frontal sinuses--hence the dependence placed in various caustic injections forced up the nostrils.

A very little reflection will, however, enable the reader to take a more extended view of the malady. When glanders exists, a staring coat generally declares the skin affected; and the customary termination of the disorder--farcy and dropsy--proves more than the surface of the body to be implicated. The lungs--or, at all events, the air-passages--never escape. Loss of flesh and swelling of the glands demonstrate the absorbent system to be involved. Absence of spirit and inability to work, toward the close of the affection, are evidence the nervous system does not escape. The secretions are derived from the blood; and the blood, it has been shown, by a silly experiment, is capable of generating the malady. Their pallid aspect, after death, convinces us the muscles were far from healthy. Of all parts, perhaps, the abdominal contents are least diseased, though the marked decay of appetite does not favor such an opinion. What disease, then, can be considered a constitutional disorder, if one which involves so many and such various structures is to be regarded as a strictly local affection?

A horse, full of corn, and in the prime of health, if unfortunately inoculated with the virus of glanders, generally has the disease in its acutest form: the animal may be dead by the expiration of a week. Other quadrupeds, in which the disorder is provoked by natural causes, may, on the contrary, exhibit glanders in the most chronic shape. If the exciting cause has a strong constitution to act upon--especially if the horse, soon after imbibing the poison, be removed to easier work or a more dry abode--the malady may exist for years in a subtle, undeveloped form. A thin discharge only may run, irregularly, from one nostril. At times no fluid may appear, nor is the liquid ever copious. One of the kernels, or lymphatic glands, situated between the branches of the channel, may be more or less fixed. But, otherwise, the horse is active, full of fire, and exhibits nothing to excite suspicion. During all this time the creature may be endowed with a fatal power of communicating the disease. Horses, having received the taint from such a source, may die within the week, while the cause of the mortality eats well, works well, delights the master's eye by its thriving appearance, and in such a condition even may exist for years.

1. The lymphatic gland enlarged, hard, and adherent firmly to the
interior of the jaw-bone.
]

In the early stage it is difficult to pronounce positively upon a case of glanders. Ulceration of the nasal membrane would be confirmation of the worst doubt; but the ulceration may be situated so high up as to defy all our efforts to distinguish it. Yet running from the nose may be perceptible, and the gland may be fixed to the jaw. Both of these symptoms, although lawfully provoking our fears, are frequently attendant upon aggravated or upon prolonged colds. The only lawful test, in such cases, is the administration of three doses of solution of aloes, eight ounces to the dose--allowing three days to elapse between each. If the horse be glandered, before the last purgative has set the real nature of the malady will be apparent in the aggravation of the symptoms. If glanders be not present, a little careful nursing will generally remove all effect of the medicine.

The glanders is mostly ushered in by febrile disturbance. The appetite is bad, the coat stares, and the pulse is quickened. A mash or two, however, apparently sets all right, and the matter is forgotten. Soon afterward a slight discharge may issue from one nostril; but it is so very slight, it excites no alarm. One of the lymphatic glands, on the same side as the moist nostril, alters in character. It may remain loose and become morbidly sensitive. Usually, however, it grows adherent to the jaw, turns hard, insensitive, and, from being wholly imperceptible in the healthy animal, enlarges to about the size of half a chestnut.

THE SECONDARY DISCHARGE. A THICK AND COPIOUS BUT STILL TRANSPARENT
EXCRETION, CONTAINING PIECES AND THREADS OF MUCUS.
]

At a later period the discharge, retaining its clear appearance, becomes more consistent, and, to a slight degree, the hairs and parts over which it flows are incrusted. It subsequently adheres to the margin of the nostril, and then, in the transparent, albuminous fluid may be seen opaque threads of white mucus. This marks the second stage.

The next change takes place more rapidly. The transparent fluid entirely disappears, and in its place is seen a full stream of unwholesome pus. At this time there is some danger of glanders being mistaken for nasal gleet. A little attention will, however, rescue any person from so imminent a peril. The smell of glanders is peculiar. It is less pungent but more unwholesome, suggesting a more deep-seated source, than characterizes the disease with which it has been confounded. The ejection of glanders, moreover, is obviously impure; whereas that of nasal gleet generally flows forth in a fetid stream of thick and creamy matter.

When the third stage is witnessed, the disease is rapidly hurrying to its termination. The membrane of the nose changes to a dull, leaden color. The margins of the nostrils become dropsical, and every breath is drawn with difficulty. The defluxion exhibits discoloration. Scabs, masses of bone or pieces of membrane, mingled with patches of blood, next make their appearance; and the internal parts are evidently being broken up by the violence of the disorder.

The above description of filthy facts is, probably, sufficiently explicit; but to render the foregoing more clear, the following diagram is appended. The reader will perceive there are two kinds of tubercles--the large and the small. One is no bigger than a grain of sand; the other is as large as half a pea. The disease which follows both is the same,--is equally contagious and is equally fatal. It will also be remarked, the membrane appears swollen and partially discolored in the case of glanders. It loses its bright, fleshy, or healthy hue; and it assumes a dull, heavy, and dropsical aspect. It will likewise be observed that comparatively few blood-vessels are ramifying upon the affected membrane, which sign, in a well-marked case, is often so obvious as to become a leading indication of the disorder.

1. A large tubercle.
2. The same in the ulcerative stage, pale in the center and dark at
the edges.
3. The same ulcers after they have united, sloughed in one another,
or become confluent.
4. The roughness which announces granular tubercles to be beneath
the skin.
5. The slightly elevated condition of the membrane when granular
tubercles appear.
6. Granular tubercles in the vesicular stage.
7. Granular tubercles in the ulcerative stage.
8. Granular tubercles after they have ulcerated and assumed the
confluent form.
]

1. A punctured wound, the skin removed, but darkest toward the center.
2. A lacerated wound, with a flap of pendant membrane.
3. A scratch--long and rough--having the edges slightly raised.
]

It is usual for low dealers, when a tubercle in the vesicular stage is detected, to assert that it is only a piece of mucus. To test such assertion, wrap a portion of tow, or anything soft, round a small stick, and wipe the place. If it be mucus, it will be removed; but if it remains, the reader may rest assured as to its nature. When an ulcer is seen, the dishonest salesman will laugh, and ask if that is all the inspector can discover--declaring the horse recently hurt itself against a nail. The interior of the nostril is a very sheltered part, and, therefore, very unlikely to be wounded. Yet so that the reader may be prepared to recognize such reality, in spite of the hard swearing and loud jocularity which is designed to confuse him, a diagram of a portion of the nostrils, covered with healthy membrane and showing the veins natural to the part, also displaying the shapes and appearances of wounds--when they occur--is inserted.

The reader has been told what constitutes glanders. He has been instructed how to recognize its more marked indications. There, however, remains to teach him the manner in which a suspected horse should be handled or examined.

The animal's head should be turned toward the strongest light obtainable; if toward the blaze of the noonday sun, so much the better. The examiner should then place himself by the side of the creature's head, not in front, but in a situation where, though the animal should snort, he is in no danger of the ejected matter falling upon him. With one hand the upper and outer rim of the nostril should be raised; when, grasping this part between the finger and thumb, no fear need be entertained. The case would be something more than suspicious, were any risk of contamination incurred.

1. Termination of the lachrymal duct--a natural development.

2. A discolored membrane, disfigured by ulcerative patches.
]

The wing of the nostril being raised, the examiner must note the appearances exposed; this he will best do by knowing where to look and what to expect. His eye has nothing to do with the skin nor with the marks that appear upon it. The opening of the lachrymal duct often challenges observation by being well defined and particularly conspicuous; but that natural development does not concern him; to that no attention must be given. The inspection must be concentrated upon the membrane more internally situated than the skin seen at the commencement of the nostrils. The skin, moreover, suddenly ceases, and is obviously defined by a well-marked margin; there is, therefore, no difficulty in distinguishing the membrane by its fleshy and moistened aspect, as well as by its situation. If, on this membrane, any irregular or ragged patches are conspicuous, if these patches are darker toward their edges than in their centers, and if they, nevertheless, seem shallow, pallid, moist, and sore, the animal may be rejected as glandered. Should any part of the membrane--after being wiped as before directed--seem rough or have evidently beneath its surface certain round or oval-shaped bodies, the horse assuredly is glandered. The membrane may present a worm-eaten appearance, or be simply of a discolored and heavy hue. In the first case, the animal ought to be condemned; in the second, it is open to more than suspicion.

No animal should be permitted to slowly perish of glanders. The disease, as it proceeds, affects the fauces, pharynx, and larynx; all become ulcerated. Not a particle of food can be swallowed; not a drop of saliva can be deglutated; not a breath of air can be inspired, without the severest torture being experienced. As the disease proceeds, the obstruction offered to the breathing grows more and more painful. Farcy breaks forth, and, as a consequence, superficial dropsy is added to the other torments. The edges of the nostrils enlarge; the membrane lining the cavities bags out, while the fauces and larynx contract: the discharge becomes more copious and the breathing is impeded. Thus the difficulty of respiration is increased, just as the condition of the lungs renders the necessity of pure air the more imperative. Ultimately, however, laborious breathing induces congestion of the brain, and the wretched sufferer falls insensible--it is hoped--to die of actual suffocation.

Such is a brief description of glanders, to cure which every now and then pretenders arise. No medicine, however, can restore the parts which disease has disorganized. There is no cure for glanders, which is essentially an ulcerative disorder. Every horse being thus contaminated should be at once destroyed: it is now lawful to do this when animals are taken in Smithfield market; but what is just in one place is surely not unjust in another. Moral rectitude resides on no particular spot. The blackguards who deal in contagion, driven from the public market, now reap a rich harvest by private sales. A chronically-glandered horse is an actual property to these rogues. It is sold. No sooner is the money paid and the vendor out of the way, than an accomplice appears and points out the nature of the bargain. The unfortunate purchaser seeks advice, and finds his worst fears confirmed. The accomplice offers to buy the horse at a knacker's price. It is obtained; and again it is advertised as "a favorite horse, the property of a gentleman deceased."

Any person ought by law to be empowered to give any man, driving or riding a glandered horse, into custody. There should be appointed certain qualified practitioners who should have authority to enter any stable at any time. Those abominations, where numbers of glandered horses are now stived together, whence they only are taken out to draw public vehicles by night, would then soon cease to exist. Were glandered horses by law condemned, men, from mercenary motives, would soon cease buying cheap life for the purpose of working disease to utter exhaustion. Such proprietors, were glanders declared just cause for slaughtering any horse wherever found, would soon discover their cheap purchases to be dear bargains. It is terrible now to witness animals, in almost the last stage of a most debilitating malady, goaded through the public streets with cruel loads behind them. It is horrible, when we reflect that every citizen in a large town is, by the avarice of unscrupulous people, exposed to a most loathsome disease, and to a most torturing death.

FARCY.

When the horse, which has been the pampered favorite in its youth, grows old, it generally becomes the half-starved and over-worked drudge of some equally half-starved proprietor. In the fullness of its pride and the freshness of its strength, it had to canter under the airy burden of my lady's figure. When the joints are stiff--when accident, disease, and sores, have rendered every movement painful; and when its energy is poorly fed upon the rankest provender--then the wretched animal is, by the whip of a thoughtless hireling, forced to toil between the shafts of some creaking cart. It is sad to watch the vehicles on a London road, and speculate upon what has been the past fortune and will be the future fate of the animals which propel them!

=Farcy= is peculiarly the lot of the poor man's horse. It is the consequence of utter exhaustion. It is the horrid friend--the last and dreadful rescuer of the thoroughly wretched. No one cause will produce it. To generate farcy, there must be a congregation of evils: the constitution must be weakly; the grooming must be neglected; the food must be stinted; the bed soiled; the dwelling small; the drainage bad; the master unfeeling, and the work excessive. All of these things, or so many of them as nature can endure, must exist before farcy can be generated.

It is true the disease can be communicated by inoculation. But that source of farcy is of very small importance. Not one case in a thousand thus originates. Farcy is essentially a skin disease. It commences with specific inflammation of the superficial absorbents. This inflammation leads to suppuration and to ulceration. Abscesses first appear. They may come on any part of the body. They seem to be, in the primary instance, lumps or hard enlargements. Something of the annexed form is first observed. There may be one of these, or there may be many. Ultimately they burst or are opened. Apparently healthy matter then issues from the interior. But the first discharge being released, the wound does not heal. The edges grow rough, the center of the sore becomes pale, and moistened by a thin, semi-transparent fluid. Then, if the neighborhood of the sore be felt, cords, more or less thin, will be discovered running from it toward some other lumps on the body.

Such is the distinguishing sign by which to recognize farcy. Lumps appear, which prove to be abscesses. They, after discharging, do not heal; they become ulcers. From them run certain cords, which are the swollen lymphatic or absorbents. Till the enlargement of the absorbents is discerned, a man, from the other signs, may suspect, but he cannot pronounce with certainty, the disease to be farcy.

If a recent case of farcy be slaughtered and dissected, the affection appears to go no deeper than the skin. The cellular tissue will exhibit indications of dropsy, which invariably is present. The muscles will be pallid and flabby, suggesting bodily debility; but, to most observers, such signs will be all that is discernible.

Is farcy, then, strictly, a local disorder? Can such be asserted of a malady which appears to be so constitutional in its origin? Is there nothing continuous with the skin? Yes, there is. Intimately connected with the outward covering of the body, imperceptibly blending with it, and capable, after exposure, of assuming its appearance, is the mucous membrane. Mucous membrane lines the interior of the body, and is very abundantly supplied with absorbents. The French, who are far more minute observers and more accomplished dissectors than the generality of English surgeons, have, in cases of farcy, detected signs which assure us the disease is not strictly an external affection. It has an internal and a deep-seated origin, as is evidenced by the discovery of a few tubercles upon the mucous membrane of the interior.

The course of the disease would likewise teach us to arrive at this conclusion. The appetite often fails; sometimes it becomes voracious. The matter is, by pressure, to be squeezed through the skin. The thirst becomes torturing; the horse will cry for water. All it drinks, however, passes quickly through the body, and the desire for fluid cannot be satisfied. At last--as though to prove the correctness of our opinion concerning the constitutional nature of farcy--glanders breaks forth.

Glanders and farcy seem to be the same disease, modified by certain circumstances to which the animal is exposed. Thus a horse, inoculated with the matter of glanders, may become farcied; or an animal, infected with the taint of farcy, may exhibit glanders. These results, together with the fact of a glandered horse displaying farcy prior to death, and of a farcied animal exhibiting glanders previous to decease, are pretty conclusive evidence.

FARCY ON THE INSIDE OF THE HORSE'S THIGH, WHERE THE SKIN IS THIN AND
THE HAIR ALMOST ABSENT.
]

Farcy is of two kinds, the large and the small. The large may appear as one or more abscesses. Generally it is disposed to select, in the first instance, those places where the skin is thin and the hair all but absent. It breaks, and becomes shallow ulcers, which, however, may heal upon the application of any escharotic. The abscesses are not, in every instance, of one absolute figure. They vary in such respect, and have a tendency, if neglected, to generate large ulcers, from which spring unsightly bunches of fungoid granulations.

The smaller description of this disorder has no preference for any particular locality. It appears, like surfeit, in small lumps all over the body. These lumps, from their size and uniformity, have been likened to buttons--hence the term "button farcy." Cords soon connect them; they maturate and burst, like the larger sort. The "button farcy," however, leaves a deeper and a more painful ulcer. It yields less readily to treatment, and seems to exhibit itself before the body is utterly exhausted.

A PORTION OF SKIN, TAKEN FROM A FARCIED HORSE, INJECTED WITH
MERCURY.
]

How very numerous the absorbents of the skin are, may be conjectured from the subjoined engraving of a prepared specimen--and not a very successful one either--of a piece of farcied skin, when deprived of hair. In this case, the animal suffered under the large or common form of the disease. In the button variety, the tumors would only be smaller, of a more even size, and far more numerous.

Farcy is, by the generality of practitioners, regarded as a more tractable disease than glanders. Certainly the course of the disorder is arrested much easier; but, to cure the malady, there is a constitution to renovate and a virus to destroy. Is it in the power of medicine to restore the health and strength, which have been underfed, sapped by a foul atmosphere, and exhausted by overwork? Tonics may prop up or stimulate for a time; but the drunkard and the opium-eater, among human beings, can inform us that the potency of the best-selected and the choicest drugs, most judiciously prescribed and carefully prepared, is indeed very limited. What, then, can be hoped for in an animal whose treatment is generally an affair of pounds, shillings, and pence? Sulphate of copper or of iron, oak-bark, Cayenne pepper, and cantharides, probably, are the chief medicines the practitioner will give. With such the horse may be patched up; it may even return to work. But at what a risk! It carries about the seeds of a disorder contagious to the human species, and in man even more terrible than in the quadruped. Is it lawful, is it right, to save an avaricious master the chance of a few shillings, and to incur the risk of poisoning an innocent person? The author thinks not. Therefore he will give no directions how to arrest the progress of farcy. The horse, once contaminated, is, indeed, very rarely or never cured. The animal, after the veterinary surgeon has shaken hands with the proprietor and departed, too often bears about an enlarged limb, which impedes its utility, and, at any period, may break forth again with more than the virulence of the original affection.