GLANDERS AND FARCY. 6 1 



GLANDERS AND FARCY. 



These terms serve to describe manifestations of one and the 

 same disease in different parts of the body; they are both due to 

 one and the same specific virus (or poison); the term glanders is 

 appHed when the recognized symptoms pecuhar to this malady 

 are developed and observable in the lining membrane of the nose, 

 the glands between the under jaws, the upper portion of the air 

 passage, the windpipe and lungs; and farcy when the disease 

 locates itself chiefly in the lymphatic vessels which accompany the 

 course of the veins as they travel down the legs, the hind legs 

 being more often the seat of attack than the fore; these lymphatic 

 vessels are swollen and hard, and at intervals small enlargements 

 like buds on a young branch in trees are observable; it is a very 

 common thing for stablemen to speak of any enlargement of the 

 hind legs, accompanied by a diffuse swelling and discharge of 

 sticky fluid as belonging to a horse that is " farcied;" this, how- 

 ever, is a misappropriation of terms, if by this word it was in- 

 tended to convey that the horse was the subject of '' farcy '^ 

 proper. 



In describing this disease we shall be understood to convey the 

 impression that we are dealing with one whose characteristics are 

 most malignant; it is capable of transmission from one horse to 

 another by immediate contact, by which we desire to convey the 

 idea that the discharge from the ulcers peculiar to this disease if 

 brought into contact with an abraded surface on the skin or 

 mucous membranes of another healthy horse will reproduce a 

 similar condition, the virus (or poison) having found its way into 

 the system through the medium of the general circulation of the 

 blood; moreover we would go further and state our belief that the 

 morbific material is capable of transmission from one horse ( dis- 

 eased) to another (not diseased) through the media of food, 

 water, litter via the digestive canal. Again we are strongly of 

 opinion that the virus of this disease may be conveyed from one 

 animal to another through the atmosphere; that is to say, it is 

 considered to be volatile; not volatile in the sense that chemists 

 use the term, but that the poisonous substance is so finely divided 

 into the most minute particles that it becomes capable of trans- 

 mission from one place to another — to say nothing of one horse to 



