FARCY. '213 



The virus at these places, and the additional inflammation there excited, 

 is to a greater or less degree evident to the eye and to the feeling. They 

 are usually first observed about the lips, the nose, the neck, the axillary 

 spaces of the chest, and the thighs. They are very hard — even of a 

 scu'rhous hardness, more or less tender, and with perceptible heat about 

 them. 



The poisonous matter being thus confined and jiressing on the part, sup- 

 puration and ulceration ensue. The ulcers have the same characters as 

 the glanderous ones on the membrane of the nose. They are rounded, 

 with an elevated edge and a pale surface. They are true chancres, and 

 they discharge a virus as infectious and as dangerous as the matter 6f 

 glanders. While they remain in their hard prominent state, they are 

 called huttons or farcy buds ; and they are connected together by the in- 

 flamed and corded absorbents. 



In some cases the horse >vill di-ooj:) for many a day before the appear- 

 ance of the corded veins or buds — his appetite -will be impaired — his coat 

 will stare — he will lose flesh. The poison is evidently at work, but has 

 not gained suflicient power to cause the absorbents to enlarge. In a few 

 cases these buds do not idcerate, biit become hard and difl&cult to disperse. 

 The progress of the disease is then suspended, and possibly for some 

 months the horse will appear to be restored to health ; but he bears the 

 seeds of the malady about him, and in due time the farcy assumes its 

 virulent form, and hurries him off. These buds have sometimes been 

 conlbunded ^vith the little iumoiu's or lumps termed surfeit. They are 

 generally liigher than these tumours, and not so broad. They have a 

 more knotty character, and are principally found on the inside of the 

 limbs, instead of the outside. 



Few things are more unhke, or more perplexing, than the difierent 

 forms which farcy assumes at different times. One of the legs, and par- 

 ticularly one of the hinder legs, will suddenly swell to an enormous size. 

 At night the horse will appear to be perfectly well, and in the morning 

 one leg will be three times the size of the other, with considerable fever 

 and scarcely the power of moving the limb. 



At other times the head vnW be subject to this enlargement, the muzzla 

 particularly will swell, and an ofiensive discharge will proceed from the 

 nose. Sometimes the horse ■^^^ll gradually lose flesh and strength ; he 

 Avill be hide-bound ; mangy eruptions will appear in different parts ; the 

 legs will swell ; cracks will be seen at the heels, and an inexperienced 

 i:)erson may conceive it to be a mere want of condition, combined with 

 grease. 



By degi-ees the affection becomes general. The virus has reached the 

 termination of the absorbents, and mingles with the general circulating 

 fluid, and is conveyed with the blood to every part of the frame. There 

 are no longer any valves to impede its progress, and consequently no knots 

 or buds, but the myriads of capillary absorbgnts that penetrate every part 

 become inflamed, and thickened, and enlarged, and cease to discharge their 

 function. Hence arises enlargement of the substance of vai'ious parts, 

 swelHngs of the legs, and chest, and head— sudden, painful, enormous, and 

 distinguished by a heat and tenderness, which do not accompany other 

 enlargements. 



It is a question considered somewhat difl&cult to answer, whether farcy 

 can exist without previous glanders. Certainly it can ; there are nume- 

 rous instances of cases of farcy running their course purely as such, and 

 ultimately arriving at a complete recovery, -without a single symptom of 

 glanders intervening. Farcy is a curable form of the disease, glanders 

 the incurable ; and this most important distinction between them at once 



