66 DISEASES OF THE HORSE. 



Symptoms. — An unhealthy coat; bad habit of body; 

 one leg, usually the fore leg, will swell to a very large 

 size; hot and painful, and in a day or two it will break 

 out in small running ulcers, or sores, discharging a sa- 

 nious fluid, sometimes of a thick and resinous color. On 

 the inside of the leg, or on the side of the body or the 

 neck, will be seen a thick, corded, and elevated substance 

 under the skin, of considerable hardness, and interrupted 

 at distances with a small sore similar to that on the leg. 

 In some cases — not in every case — circumscribed, and 

 soft, puffy swellings, will be seen about the mouth, lips, 

 and indeed on many parts of the body. These swellings 

 are not to be confounded with swelling of the legs, belly, 

 breast, sheath, etc., in cases of weakness or debility. 

 These swellings have been named water farcy by some 

 people, but have no connection with true or malignant 

 farcy whatever, and are not in any way infectious or con- 

 tagious. After some alterations and changes occupying 

 a few weeks, the animal becomes much changed for the 

 worse, the blood becoming so deteriorated and changed in 

 character that the animal's vitality soon gives way, and 

 the horse dies a miserable object. 



Causes. — Overcrowding horses in small and insufficient 

 houses, with little or no ventilation, each animal repeat- 

 edly breathing the noxious or waste material from the 

 lungs of his companions, thus introducing into the blood 

 a powerful pathogen in the form of a ferment ; inoculation 

 from the virus of glandered or farcied horses, the inocula- 

 tion producing a ferment; debility, ending in changing 

 the character of the blood. Absorption of pus from sores 

 or ulcers into the blood is another powerful ferment, and 

 ends either in farcy, glanders, or some other zymotic 

 disease. 



