248 CONTAGIOUS DISEASES. 



CHRONIC FARCY. 



In chronic farcy the local symptoms generally precede any 

 apparent febrile disturbance ; but if the thermometer be em- 

 ployed for the examination of all horses in a stud where glanders 

 exists, some elevation of tlie temperature of the body may be 

 apparent in the infected prior to the development of any local 

 symptoms. 



These local symptoms consist of circumscribed inflammatory 

 swellings, running in the direction of the principal vessels, 

 which suppurate and burst, without much accompanying engorge- 

 ment of the surrounding areolar tissue. 



The circumscribed elevations or buds are connected together 

 by corded lymphatic vessels, and wherever a valve is situated 

 in a lymphatic duct, there a swelling will usually appear, and 

 a bud w^ill form. The buds are ranged in groups about the inner 

 and outer aspects of the thigh, fore arm, flank, neck, and head. 

 From the circumstance that the enlarged cords and buds run in 

 the same direction as the veins, the old farriers concluded that 

 farc}^ was a disease of the veins ; dissections, however, soon 

 expelled this delusion, and the reason why the disease accom- 

 panies the vessels is explained by the fact that the lymphatics 

 and blood-vessels run in company. 



In some instances farcy is found confined to the cervical lym- 

 pliatics. An examination of the neck along the course of the 

 jugular vein will enable the veterinarian to detect the lymphatic 

 duct swollen, liard, and presenting irregular knots along its 

 course. Suppuration seldom occurs, but the animal sooner or 

 later presents signs of glanders or of farcy in some other part of 

 the body. 



Chronic farcy differs from the acute only in intensity and 

 duration, and is the only form of equina which is at all amen- 

 able to treatment. 



The Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act provides, however, 

 for the destruction of glandered and farcied horses. I think 

 that the provisions of the Act should be strictly carried out, 

 and compensation paid from the imperial exchequer, as the 

 disease, in, whatever form it appears, has hitherto remained 

 incurable, and is always a source of danger both to human and 



