J 38 ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE NOSE AND MOUlH. 



well to-day, and to-morrow he is gorged from the fetlock to the haunch, and although 

 there is not the same redness or glossiness, there is great tenderness, a burning- heat 

 in the limb and much general fever. It is simultaneous inflammation of all the 

 absorbents of the limb. 



Surfeit can scarcely be confounded with farcy or glanders. It is a pustular erup- 

 tion — sitrfeil-bu)/ips, as they are called, and terminating in desquamation, not in ulcer- 

 ation, although numerous, yet irregularly placed, and never following the course of 

 the absorbents, Imt scattered over the skin. 



Local dropsy of the cellular membrane, and particularly that enlargement beneath 

 the thorax which has the strange appellation of wakr-farry, have none of the charac- 

 ters of real farcy. It is general debility to a greater or less degree, and nrt inflamma- 

 tion of the absorbents. If properly treated, it soon disappears, except that, occasion- 

 ally, at the close of some serious disease, it indicates a breaking up of the constitution. 



Farcy, like glanders, springs from infection and from bad stable management. It 

 is produced by all the causes which give rise to glanders, with this difl'erence, that it 

 is more frequently generated, and sometimes strangely prevalent in particular districts. 

 It will attack, at the same time, several horses in the same ill-conducted stable, and 

 others in the neighbourhood who have been exposed to the same predisposing- causes. 

 Some have denied that it is a contagious disease. They must have had little experi- 

 ence. It is true that tiie matter of farcy must come in contact with a wound or sore, 

 in order to communicate the disease ; but accustomed as horses are to nibble and play 

 with each other, and sore as the corners of the mouth are frequently rendered liy the 

 bit, it is easy to imagine that this may be easily eflfecled ; and experience tells us, that 

 a horse having frrcy ulcers cannot be suffered to remain with others without extreme 

 risk. 



The treatment of farcy differs with the form that it assumes. As a general rule, 

 and especially when the buttons or buds are beginning to appear, a mild dose of 

 physic should first be administered. The buds should then be carefully examined, 

 and if any of them have broken, the budding-iron, at a dull red heat, should be a])plied. 

 If pus should be felt in them, showing that they are disposed to break, they should 

 be penetrated with the iron. These wounds should be daily inspected, and if. when 

 the slough of the cautery comes off, they look pale, and foul, and spong-j-, and dis- 

 charge a thin matter, they should be frequently washed with a strong lotion of corro- 

 sive sublimate, dissolved in rectified spirit. When the wounds begin to look red, and 

 the bottom of them is even and firm, and they discharge a thick white or yellow mat- 

 ter, the Friar's balsam will usually dispose them to heal. 



As, however, the constitution is now tainted, local applications will not be sufli- 

 cient, and the disease must be attacked by internal medicine as soon as the phvsic 

 has ceased to opi^rate. 



Corru.sive sublimate used to be a favourite medicine, coml)inrd with tonics, and 

 repeated morning and night until the idcers disap])e;ired, unless the mouth became 

 sore or the horse was violently purged, when the sulphate of copper was substituted 

 for the corrosive sublimate. During this treatment the animal was jilaced, if possible, 

 in a large box, with a free circulation of air; and green meat or carrots, and particu- 

 larly the latter, were given, with a full allowance of corn. If he could be turned out 

 in the day, it was deemed highly advantageous. It is related by Mr. I51;iine, that a 

 horse, so reduced as not to be able to stand, was drawn into a field of tares, and suf- 

 fered to take his chance. The consequence was, that, when he liad eaten all within 

 his reach, he contrived to move about and search for more, and eventually recovn-pil. 

 INIany horses recover under the use of the sublimate, but the great majority of them 

 die. 



Mr. Vines introduced a more effective medicine — cnnfJinridrs, in crml)ination like- 

 wise with tlie vegetable l)ilters — as a cure for fare}' and glanders. It cannot b(^ denied, 

 that many animals labouring under the former, and a few under tlu' latter, were to all 

 appearance radically cured. The medicine Avas suspended for a while if alfection of 

 the kidneys suj)erveMed. 



A still more eflectual meilicine has been introduced bv Professor Mortrn, nainelv, 

 the dinindide of cupper, and it has l)een fiiund of essential service in fircv and in dis- 

 eases simulating glanders. lie says that its action is that of a stimulant to the 



