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SECTION XVII L 



DISEASES OF THE LYMPHATIC SYSTEM. 



GLANDERS 



^,^^^ OTHER DISEASES. 



FARCY 



From perusal of the various works treating of hippopathology, 

 even from ancient date down to the present time, we learn that 

 diseases, as generations and ages have rolled on, have remained 

 unchanged in their nature notwithstanding the alterations in other 

 respects they have manifestly undergone. In virulence or malignity 

 many of them now are quite different from what they formerly 

 were ; in amount of prevalence or in epidemical character, others 

 have shewn as striking changes. Grease, canker, strangles, farcy, 

 glanders, are still in nature the same they ever were ; yet how 

 prevalent they were wont to be compared to what they are now- 

 a-days ! The state of horses in general, all large horse establish- 

 ments, our cavalry in particular, bear record of these facts. I 

 have oftentimes heard my father — who was for thirty years senior 

 veterinary surgeon to the ordnance — say, when he first entered 

 the service, to such an extent did grease and canker prevail, 

 and in such malignant and incurable forms, that numbers of 

 horses infested with these diseases had been, for years past he 

 learnt, annually shot as incurable : so bad was the stable discipline, 

 and so wretched the state of veterinary practice. What, however, 

 would be thought of an army veterinary surgeon at the present 

 day in whose regiment was found a horse incurably greased or 

 cankered ] Nay, no very wholesome opinion would be formed of 

 such an officer, or of the stable-management practised in his regi- 

 ment, were cases of this description, in any degree beyond a mere 



VOL. in. Y 



