FROM THE HOUSE TO THE HUMAN BEING. 
575 
we adopt that of equinia*, proposed by Dr. Elliotson 1 or, following 
the example of Messieurs Berard and Denonvilliers, designate it 
glanderous affection t ? The term equinia certainly indicates the 
origin of the disease, and comprises its chief forms; but to adopt it 
would be unnecessarily to introduce another name into a science 
the glossology of which is already so multitudinous. 
The term glanderous affection , made use of by Messieurs Berard 
and Denonvilliers, is incomplete ; it comprises only one form of the 
disease. It would be far more logical to designate the union of 
these two diseases far cino- glanderous affection. This denomina- 
tion, although somewhat lengthy, comprehends the whole of the 
disease, and avoids all opportunity of blundering. 
In adopting the term far cino- glanderous affection , I shall add, 
that this is a specific and contagious disease, produced by the in- 
troduction of a peculiar morbific principle into the economy, which 
principle is an actual animal poison. 
Specific and contagious diseases have two distinguishing cha- 
racteristics : the former may be known by the almost invariable 
regularity with which they proceed, enabling the medical man 
to foresee with mathematical precision each symptom or alter- 
ation likely to occur; excepting in one or two cases, when these 
diseases present themselves under what is termed an anomalous 
form. Small-pox, scarlatina, and measles, belong to this category. 
Diseases of the latter class ( contagious ), although produced by a 
virulent cause, are by no means so uniform or regular in their ma- 
nifestation : thus syphilis, which may be ranged under this head, 
presents^ primitive, secondary, local, general, and constitutional 
affections, which, at first sight, appear to be so many particular 
morbid states, but are actually only different modifications of the 
venereal disease. 
The syphilitic virus when introduced into the human economy 
produces lesions of the mucous membranes ( blennorrhagia , ulcer- 
ation), lesions of the external tegument (syphiloid excrescences), 
alterations of the bony tissues (exostosis, pains in the bones), in- 
flammations of the lymphatic ganglions ( buboes ), &c. 
The cause of all these morbid appearances is evident, and no 
judicious medical man will hesitate to assert the existence of the 
venereal disease when once he has ascertained the presence of one 
or more of these symptoms. In the same manner the farcino- 
glanderous virus, which is always identical in origin and nature, 
* Dr. Elliotson proposes' the generic term equinia , which he afterwards 
divides into two varieties eq. nasalis, or glanders, eq. apostematos , or farcy. 
t Berard et Denonvilliers, Compendium de Chir. Prat. p. 507. 
! Dictionaire de Med. et Chir. Prat, tome xv, p. 176. 
