DIAGNOSIS. 141 



Neither of these phenomena, the ' abscesses ' nor the local 

 ' infiltration swellings/ can be regarded as essentially charac- 

 teristic or diagnostic of farcy, acute or chronic ; they are cer- 

 tainly not always, nor even very often, met with. They are not 

 unfreqiiently regarded as the result of injuries received, the 

 special character and development of the swellings being 

 accepted as the result of a local injury sustained while the 

 economy is pervaded by a specific and malignant virus. That 

 such causes never tend to or assist in the development of 

 these changes we would not venture to maintain; they are 

 certainly very often situated on those parts most liable to 

 suffer from blows or external violence, still there seems evi- 

 dence enough to satisfy that external violence is not always, 

 or in every instance, the determining agent in their pro- 

 duction. 



Between the two extremes of so-called acute glanders and 

 chronic farcy there are many varieties of the diseased action 

 presenting many features and phenomena of an intermediate 

 character ; these variations in the form, and the apparent 

 divergence of the phenomena exhibited during the develop- 

 ments of this malignant disease, render it exceedingly difficult 

 always to form an exact and perfectly correct classification of 

 it, and in dealing with it in daily practice are apt to mislead 

 the most experienced and careful. 



Diagnosis. — Correctly to diagnose the existence of equina 

 in any of its varied manifestations, or as a general diseased 

 specific condition, is for us, as experts and scientifically 

 equipped sanitary officers, of infinite importance. 



It may seem to the uninitiated a rather strange matter that 

 in a disease so generally accepted as undoubtedly malignant 

 there should be room for any doubt, particularly amongst 

 skilled witnesses, as to its existence in any particular case. 

 Undoubtedly very many, probably the greater number, of the 

 cases of farcy-glanders exhibit features and indications suffi- 

 ciently diagnostic to keep even the least skilled and most 

 careless or reckless observer from being mistaken ; still it must 

 not be forgotten that not a few developments of the disease 

 are so insidious and undemonstrative in the exhibition of 

 their specific features as to mislead, or cause the most com- 

 petent and careful investigator to hesitate ; while it is well 



