FARCY IN THE HUMAN BEING. 355 
is upon a level with the surrounding parts. The thickening of the 
skin round the cavities is disappearing. 
30/A.—Going on well; pulse about 60; appetite tolerable. The 
fluid in the cavities appears absorbed ; about their edges are lumps 
about the size of peas—larger or smaller—but not so regular in 
shape; the cuticle is peeling off in places. 
To leave his bed. 
February —Convalescent. There are still tubercles in the 
situation of the blotches, and slight discoloration of the skin; other¬ 
wise he is well. 
Omit medicine. 
April 18//i.—The tubercles remained for several weeks, but are 
nearly gone. I saw Mr. Gresswell to-day, who is in other respects 
quite well. 
Upon looking over the foregoing case, the first inquiry will natu¬ 
rally be. What was the nature of the disease; and to this I fear I 
cannot give a very satisfactory answer. My first impression, from 
the appearance of the patient and the circumstances which had 
taken place three weeks before he applied to me, was, that he was 
the subject of glanders; and I am still inclined to the same opinion. 
I have searched books, and made inquiries among all my friends 
likely to be informed upon the subject, but have not met with any 
very satisfactory information. All the cases I have heard of have 
not been noticed by professional men until they had become much 
worse than the foregoing. In Rayer’s plates, which I have had a 
view of through your kindness, all the cases there depicted had 
formed open ulcers; and so it was in all the cases I have heard of. 
This disease occurs, of course, principally among ostlers, soldiers, 
&c. who will not apply for medical assistance until unable to follow 
their usual employment. 
If my opinion be correct, this case will shew, as far as a single 
case can be relied on, that the intractable nature of this disease 
arises rather from its neglect in its early stages than from its natu¬ 
ral virulence. It likewise shews, that there is nothing deleterious, 
at first, in the secretions of the affected parts, since the fluids and 
tubercles perceived upon the limbs of the patient have been ab¬ 
sorbed without affecting his health. 
[The following observations, by our friend, Mr. Percivall, were not 
designed to meet the public eye; but the description of the dis¬ 
ease in our patients is so peculiarly graphic and characteristic, 
that we cannot refrain from laying it before our readers.]—Y. 
“ I think Mr. Curtis’s case very analogous to incipient farcy. 
The ‘ blotches of inflammation’ appear to have been absorbents. The 
pain on beginning to walk, and its abatement afterwards, is coinci- 
