OF FARRIERY. 



73 



not a local disease. I have heard persons say 

 It arises from drinking cold water, and eating 

 beans ; but I cannot see how these wholesome 

 materials for food can produce a poison. ] 

 think it far more probable to be produced by 

 a poisoned atmosphere ; an atmosphere over 

 and over again impregnated with what 

 escapes from the lungs, the skin, the dung, 

 and urine : there is no surprise in the matter, 

 if we examine for a moment why such a com- 

 position should not affect the lungs, and if not 

 immediately the substance of the lungs; but 

 the system will become afiected through the 

 blood, which is continually travelling through 

 them at every pulsation. 



The air also furnished to go into the lungs, 

 was never intended by nature to be made use 

 ^f when charged with deleterious gases. 

 Pure air is so important to life, that if 

 deprived of it only for a few minufes we 

 should die. If we breathe from a bladder 

 long enough, we shall drop from exhaustion ; 

 and yet, examine the contents of that bladder, 

 and there will be found oxygen, but there has 

 a poison become united to it, which cannot be 

 detected, and which is incapable of sustaining 

 life. Farcy, then, is a consequence of that law 

 stamped upon animal existence, that where 

 they exist beyond a certain number, it is 

 necessary that they should be thinned, for it is 

 better some should die, than all be made un- 

 comfortable : now nature accomplishes this by 

 poison, in some animals, producing fever, &c. 

 &c. This is the true cause of farcy, produced 

 through the medium of the lungs, uniting 

 with the blood, and it circulating every 

 where. It has been contended by some 

 writers, that the blood cannot be affected, for 

 if capable of receiving a poison, it became so 

 subdivided that of course it was inert : another 



argument set up was, the blood going to all 

 parts, and all parts not becoming affected ; 

 but this is easily accounted for ; for if you 

 give a Horse turpentine, and bleed him in the 

 course of an hour afterwards, you will dis- 

 tinctly smell the turpentine ; though we know 

 the kidneys are the parts alone affected by it, 

 showing that by the law of nature, that all parts 

 are not alike susceptible ; for there is no dis- 

 ease which affects all parts, therefore, it is no 

 proof the blood may not be contaminated, 

 because the skin alone is affected, and thoueh 

 glanders or farcy, or both, can be produced 

 when the poison is absorbed, the substance of 

 the lungs may not be affected at all in the 

 early or curable state of farcy, though 

 they generally do become affected, and in 

 such case, medicine is of no use whatever. 

 Horses most predisposed to this pest of diseases, 

 are narrow-chested Horses, with flat sides 

 and long legs. The common farriers will, one 

 and all, tell you they can cure the disease, 

 because they think it a local affection, which 

 is easily cured. Their practice being to 

 burn the ulcers, destroying the specific action 

 in the part, and they may in some instances 

 perform a partial cure, if the poison has not 

 gone further, the buds healed, and the cure 

 said to be completed. But in most instances, 

 when thus locally treated, it breaks out again, 

 even at the end of twelve months. I have 

 known it to occur and terminate in glanders ; 

 those only being cured, which have not the 

 lungs affected. 



The cure of farcy may be obtained, if it be 

 purely local ; such as when the buds are on 

 the legs only, so as it appears to be confined 

 to the lymphatics of the skin ; but if the 

 poison be once got into the system, I should at 

 once despair of any thing like a cure. If the 



