THERAPEUTIC TREATMENT OF FARCY. ,349 



the horse at the same time be well groomed : I am convinced 

 that, no more in farcy than in glanders, is it prudent, after the first 

 violence of the inflammation is past, to let the patient live low, 

 or suffer him in his stable-management to go neglected. His 

 general health must, if possible, be maintained. 



Medicine. — After the first brisk dose or two of cathartic me- 

 dicine, supposing we still deem it advisable to occasionally clear 

 out the bowels — which we certainly shall do so long as inflamma- 

 tion continues to harass the diseased parts, or whenever relapses 

 occur — I prefer giving divided doses of cathartic mass in com- 

 bination with diuretic mass. A simple and effectual formula is 

 the common one of half-an-ounce of each mass, repeated every 

 twenty-four hours, until the bowels shall have fully responded : 

 the second ball not always accomplishing this — the third, generall3^ 



Cathartics having been carried as far as is deemed expedient, 

 the question presents itself — what is the next step to be taken ] 

 This is an important question ; at the same time one that admits 

 of such variation in the professional answer to be given to it, that 

 I will venture to affirm, the inquirer shall go to a dozen veterinary 

 surgeons and receive for answer the names of as many different 

 remedies. For instance, if he were to go to Professor Sewell, he 

 would be directed to administer large doses of sulphate of copper 

 in solution ; to Mr. Youatt, and he would be told to change the 

 large for small doses ; to Mr. Vines, and he would be ordered to 

 give cantharides ; to Mr. Turner, and he would be recommended 

 to try the sulphate of iron in the animal's beverage* : lastly, let 

 him come to me, and I should probably counsel him to make trial 

 of barytes. Indeed, there hardly exists a medicine in the phar- 

 macopoeia of any potency that has not by one or another been tried 

 or lauded as a remedy for farcy. Nothing can shew the insuflfi- 

 ciency of our art more plainly than all this; the simple truth — 

 lying in a imt-shell — being, as 1 observed before, that we are no 

 more in possession of any specific remedy against farcy than we 

 are of one against glanders. And in the absence of such a de- 

 sideratum, we may say, as we did when on the treatment of 

 glanders, that we seem to gain more by a tonic and astringent or 



* Mr. Turner's prescription has been given in anotlier place. 



