320 SEAT AND NATURE OF FARCY. 



Coleman pronounced farcy to consist in " an inflammation and 

 suppuration of the lymphatic vessels;" and assumed, that the dis- 

 ease had a predilection for the swperjicial to the exclusion of the 

 deep-seated order of those vessels, the same as other diseases of the 

 body had their peculiar seats. He considered farcy-buds to arise 

 from efi'usions of adhesive matter into the canal of the lymphatic, 

 distending the vessel in the intervals between its valves, which 

 latter he regarded as insusceptible of the farcinous irritation ; 

 '' for if," said he, " a diseased lymphatic vessel be examined, 

 perfectly sound partitions of membrane will be found between the 

 buds, which cannot be any thing else but the valves*.'' 



LeblanC, however, with whose researches and opinions we 

 have had reason, when on the subject of the pathology of glanders, 

 to be well pleased, regards the farcy-bud as the result of the coa- 

 gulation of the lymphatic fluid or lymph, accumulated within it 

 in consequence of the obstruction in its incrassated condition the 

 fluid (lymph) receives from the valves, to which accumulations is 

 owing the well-known plumpness and rounded shape of farcy-buds. 

 Still, Leblanc admits that the vessels themselves are " almost 

 always" in a state of disease : he has found their coats thickened 

 and opaque, their lining membrane frequently exhibiting red spots, 

 ragged, adherent to the contained portions of coagulated lymph, 

 and in places softened without any ulceration, or else altogether 

 in a softened condition. This softening change in time pervades 

 the other (thickened) tunics of the vessel, and even aflects the 

 contained clots of lymph, ending, at length, in points of ulceration, 

 opposite to which the surrounding cellular tissue becomes at first 

 tumid, afterwards solid and firm ; lastly, soft, as the other parts 

 have become. In the centre of the softened mass a little depot of 

 matter forms, a pustule, having its seat partly in the lymphatic 

 vessel, partly in the cellular tissue, and separated from other 

 pustules above and below it by the valves. In places where the 

 skin is very thin — on the lips, nose, insides of the thighs, &c. — 

 Leblanc observes, farcy-buds are in general smaller than in parts 



* Coleman's Lectures on Glanders and Farcy, as contained in vol. iii of 

 my "Elementary Lectures on the Veterinary Art." 



