'-.811 -. 



lisease in man is never seen, and a disease inseparable from the 

 present manner of domestication. In a word, the disease called 

 fercy is nothing more nor less than the effects of a class of patho- 

 gens called ferments, leavens, or zumins, acting and producing fer- 

 mentation in the blood. (See Glanders.) In medicines zumins 

 are used, such as yeast, rennet, pepsin, and cow-pox matter. 

 Among the various diseases of the horse, produced by ferments, 

 are glanders, farcy, purpura, grease, and several eruptions of the 

 skin and legs. This is readily explained. For instance, if tlie 

 liver, kidneys, skin, and bowels of a horse be not acting right, liow 

 is effete matter to be eliminated or carried from the blood or tlie 

 body of the animal ? This effete matter, as a small piece of mem- 

 brane, dead bone or pus, not escaping by the usual channels, will 

 decay and become an active ferment in the blood and in the fluids 

 rkf the body. This, then, is the only true explanation of the phe- 

 iiomena of farcy in the horse. 



Symptoms. An unhealthy coat ; bad habit of body ; one leg, 

 usually the fore leg, will swell to a very large size — hot and pain- 

 ful, and in <\ day or two it will break out in small, running ulcers, 

 or sores, discharging a sanious fluid, sometimes of a thick and 

 resinous color. On the inside of the leg, or on the side of the body 

 or on the neck will be seen a thick, corded, and elevated sub- 

 stance under the skin, of considerable hardness, and interrupted 

 at distances with a small sore similar to that on the leg. In some 

 cases — not in every case — circumscribed and soft, puffy swellings 

 will be seen about the mouth, lips, and indeed on many parts of 

 the body. These swellings are not to be confounded with swell- 

 ing of the legs, belly, breast, sheath, etc., in cases of weakness or 

 debility. These swellings have been named water farcy by some 

 people, but have no connection with true or malignant farcy what- 

 ever, and are not in any way infectious or contagious. After some 

 alterations and changes occupying a few weeks, the animal be 

 comes much changed for the worse, the blood becoming so dete- 

 riorated and changed in character that the animal's vitality soon 

 gives way, and the horse dies a miserable object. 



Causes, Overcrowding horses in small and insignificant houses, 

 with little or no ventilation, each animal repeatedly breathing the 

 noxious or waste material from the luu^ of his companions, thui 



