IM AMERICAN FARMER'S HORSE BOOK. 



mouths do not open. In tlie discharge of their duty, they 

 not only remove that which has become useless, and often 

 that which is healthy, but that which is poisonous and de- 

 structive. They open upon the surface of every glanderous 

 chancer. They absorb a portion of the virus, which is se- 

 creted by the ulcer, and, as it passes along these little tubes, 

 they suffer from its acrimonious quality; hence the corded 

 veins, as they are called by the farrier, or, more properly, 

 the thickened and inflamed absorbents following the course 

 of the veins. 



"At certain distances in the course of the absorbents are 

 loose duplicatures of -the lining membrane, which are pressed 

 against the side of the vessel, and permit the fluid to pass in 

 a direction toward the chest, but belly out and impede, or 

 arrest, its progress from the chest. The veins 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, 

 and .the thighs. They are very hard, — even of scirrhous 

 hardness, more or less tender, and with perceptible heat about 

 them. 



" The poisonous matter being thus confined and pressing on 

 the parts, suppuration and ulceration ensue. The ulcers 

 have the same character as the glanderous ones on the 

 membrane of the nose. They are rounded, with an elevated. 

 edge and a pale surface. They are true chancers, and dis- 

 charge a virus as infectious and dangerous as the matter of 

 glanders. While they remain in their hard prominent state, 

 they are called buttons or farcy-buds, and they are connected 

 'together by the inflamed and corded veins. 



" In some cases the horse will droop for^many a day before 

 the appearance 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 sufficient 

 power to cause the absorbents to enlarge. In a few cases 

 these buds do not ulcerate, but become hard and difficult to 

 disperse. The progress of the disease is then suspended, 



