240 



A DICTIONARY. 



from some one of the former diseases ; in 

 which, from the injury done to the coronary 

 vascular ligament, it can never afterwards 

 secrete horn ; but the break or interruption, 

 produced by the interposition of a portion 

 of non-secreting substance, causes a part of 

 the outer crust of the wall to be absent. 

 Such a blemish is called a false quarter ; 

 and it is evident that it must greatly tend 

 to weaken the hoof. It likewise sometimes 

 produces the same unpleasant effects as a 

 sand-crack, by the separation of the under 

 layer of the wall admitting the vascular 

 laminae between the opening. The treat- 

 ment can be only palliative. Keep the neigh- 

 boring horn always thin : use a bar shoe, 

 and " lay off''"' (as a smith calls it) the de- 

 ficient quarter. This may be done either 

 by paring the crust, or by an indentation in 

 the shoe ; the choice of which is left to the 

 prudence of the operator, with this excep- 

 tion, that, in a weak^thin foot, the alteration 

 should always be made in the shoe, and in 

 a strong one, in the crust. 



Farcy. — A disease of the lymphatics or 

 absorbent vessels. Its most usual form is 

 that of small tumors, or huds^ as they are 

 termed, which make their appearance in 

 different parts of the surface, gradually be- 

 come soft, or suppurate, and burst, and be- 

 come a foul ulcer. Its cause may be found 

 in anything that will derange the general 

 system, or produce debility ; its proximate 

 cause is immoderate work, inattention to 

 diet, hot unhealthy stables, sudden changes 

 of temperature, standing on filthy litter, etc. 



Fauces. — That j)art of the throat which 

 lies behind the tongue. 



Femoral Artery. — The principal ar- 

 tery of the thigh. 



Femur, or Os Femoris. — The thigli bone. 



Fetlock. — A lock of hair at the lower 

 part of the fore and hind legs. 



Fever is a powerful effort of the vital 

 principle to remove all obstructions to or- 

 dinary and proper action. The reason why 

 veterinary practitioners have not ascertained 

 this fact heretofore, is, because they have 

 been guided by the false principle that fever 

 is disease. Let them bvit receive the truth 



of the definition we have given, then the 

 light will begin to shine, and medical dark- 

 ness will be rendered more visible. 



Fever, as we have said, is an effort of the 

 vital power to regain its equilibrium of 

 action through the system, and should never 

 be subdued by the use of agents that de- 

 prive the organs of the power to produce it. 

 Fever will be generally manifested in one 

 or more of that combination of signs com- 

 monly given as a description of fever, viz : 

 increased velocity of the pulse, heat, red- 

 ness, pain and swelling, thirst, obstructed 

 surface, etc., some of which will be present, 

 local or general, in greater or less degree, in 

 all forms of disease. In what is called 

 acute attacks these signs are very manifest : 

 in chronic cases, they are often faint ; but 

 still they exist. When an animal has taken 

 cold, and there is power enough in the sys- 

 tem to keep up a continual Avarfare against 

 obstructions, the disturbance of vital action 

 being unbroken, the fever is called pure, or 

 unbroken. The powers of the system may 

 become exhausted by efforts at relief, and 

 the fever will be periodically reduced : this 

 form of fever is called remittent. It would 

 be as absurd to expect that the most accu- 

 rate definition of fever would correspond, in 

 all its details, with another case, as to ex- 

 pect all animals to be alike. 



There are many agents that obstruct 

 vital action, and many an organ to be 

 obstructed, which some have classed as dis- 

 tinct fevers ; for example, milk fever, puer- 

 peral fever, symptomatic, typhus, inflamma- 

 tory, etc. Our system teaches us that there 

 is but one cause of fever, viz., the natural 

 motive power of the system, and but one 

 fever itself, viz., accumulated vital action ; 

 hence the treatment must be physiological. 



Veterinary Surgeon Percivall,in an article 

 on fever, says : " We have no more reason, 

 nor not near so much, to give fever a habita- 

 tion in the abdomen, as we have to enthrone 

 it in the head ; but it would appear, from 

 the full range of observation, that no part 

 of the body can be said to be insusceptible 

 of inflammation [local fever] in human 

 fever, though, at the same time, no organ is 



