30:] 



FARCY. 



Derivation. — Our word /arcy is a modification or alteration of 

 the French woxdi farcin, the etymon of which is from the Latin verb 

 farcire, to stuff. Vegetius called the disease morbus far ciminosus, 

 the stuffed or stuffy malady; and certainly a farcinous limb ex- 

 hibits very much of that character. The translator of Solleysell's 

 '* Compleat Horseman" (Sir William Hope) introduced into our 

 language the French appellation itself, /am/i, and for many years 

 afterwards the disease went by that name. We find the learned 

 Dr. Bracken writing '' on the farcing Gibson appears to have 

 been the first who ventured in print on the introduction of any inno- 

 vation. At the head of his chapter he writes " of the farcin or 

 FARCY," and in his description of the disease adopts the latter in 

 preference to the former appellation. Still, however, though au- 

 thors since his time, and veterinarians and horse-folks in general, 

 have called the disease " farcy," yet is the old French name not 

 altogether exploded from our language, it being by no means a 

 very rare occurrence, even in our own day, to hear farriers in the 

 country talking about the '' farcin." 



Definition. — Farcy consists in the appearance upon such parts 

 of the body as are known to give passage to the lymphatic 

 vessels, of swellings in the form of nodous cords, called farcy 

 buds, which in time ripen into pustules, and terminate in ulcera- 

 tion. 



Varieties. — We distinguish, in respect to severity and rapi- 

 dity of course, the same varieties in farcy as we do in glanders — 

 the acute, sub-acute, and chronic. Acute farcy manifests equal 

 virulence, and runs its course in almost an equally short period of 

 time with acute glanders, in which disease it commonly terminates 

 some short time prior to dissolution. Sub-acute, however, is the 

 ordinary form farcy assumes; and a very irregular, fluctuating 

 course in this form it is apt to take, remissions being more or less 

 marked, or intermissions taking place of greater or less length, 

 until at last acute farcy supervenes, and with the aid of glanders 



VOL. III. R R 



