389 
FARCY AND GLANDERS. 
To the Editor of the Medical Gazette. 
Sir,—T he enclosed remarks, prompted by the perusal of Mr. 
Brush’s cases, are, should you think them worth notice, quite at 
your service. 
Your obedient servant. 
Will. Percivall, M.R.C.S. 
Hyde Park Barracks, Vet. Surgeon First Life Guards. 
May 4, 1840. 
So long, so great a debtor, as veterinary' science is to human 
medicine, it would be the height of ingratitude—to say nothing 
about the philanthropy of the case—in her to withhold any aid, 
be that ever so slight, she deemed might prove serviceable to her 
scientific sister. The subjects, farcy and glanders, have occupied 
the most serious attention of veterinarians from even the com¬ 
mencement of their art. In a former age, Lafosse, the celebrated 
French veterinarian, pursued his inquiry into the nature of these 
diseases with an ardour which, as he went on, ripened into the 
warmest zeal, from the circumstance of his having imagined that he 
had discovered a remedy for this opprobrium of his art. His views, 
however, turned out fallacious; being grounded upon the supposi¬ 
tion that he had to combat with but a local affection, while in real¬ 
ity it was a constitutional one. Sainbel, the first Professor ap¬ 
pointed at our own Veterinary College, also turned his attention to 
these subjects; but his career proved too short to enable him to 
advance them any great deal. In his successor’s (Professor Cole¬ 
man) lime, the important facts became developed, that farcy and 
glanders were the same disease, affecting different parts or tissues; 
that inoculation with the matter of farcy would produce glanders, 
and vice versa; that farcy had for its seat the skin—glanders 
the Schneiderian membrane; that both consisted in inflammation 
and suppuration of the superficial order of lymphatics; and that 
the chain of little abscesses, followed by exulcerations, was owing 
to the circumstance of the valves of the absorbent vessels (appa¬ 
rently from their comparatively low degree of organization) not 
taking on the ulcerative action. That both farcy and glanders are 
contagious diseases admits no longer of doubt; but that either is 
communicable, except through direct contact, or inoculation of some 
sort, we have no facts to prove. Some years ago, these diseases 
among horses were extremely prevalent. Our regiments of cavalry 
evinced this, as well as other horse-establishments, and, indeed, 
the country at large. But, now-a-days, such is not the case. A 
better plan of ventilation and training has done much to prevent, 
VOL. XIII. 3 G 
