22 
FARCY IN EGYPT. 
Among the predisposing causes, authors have cited the fol¬ 
lowing : Disease of the blood—lymphatic temperament—the 
neighbourhood of rivers, or low and marshy places subject to 
inundations.” It is also said, that farcy may be produced by 
the use of irritating food in undue quantities, as corn, or other 
fodder, diy, dirty, mouldy, putrid. New hay also has occa¬ 
sioned intestinal irritation, which by sympathy may become the 
cause of farcy eruption.” (Huitrel D^Arboval.) 
Filthy and cold stables, where the water runs along the sides 
of the walls, unwholesome water, and continual work in the 
water, have also given rise to farcy. 
M. Hurtrel D’Arboval combats the opinion of those who 
maintain that all the causes of farcy are of a debilitating nature. 
He sees in all of them signs of irritation. According to him, the 
effects of farcy are produced according to the predominance of 
the lymphatic system. It is positively demonstrated, and placed 
beyond doubt, that farcy, the seat of which is in the lymphatic 
vessels and ganglions, attacks in preference the horses in which 
these organs predominate. The predominance of a particular 
system, may it not be indicated in animals by the colour of the 
hair ? May not the different shades, which the natural covering 
of the horse presents, indicate the peculiar nature of his tem¬ 
perament? In human medicine, do we not know that fair people 
are more disposed to scrofula and phthisis pulmonalis than the 
brown or the black ? May not the same things exist in veterinary 
medicine ? Does not the observation apply to the appearance 
of melanosis in grey horses alone? 
We know from experience that black horses are, in Egypt, far 
less susceptible of farcy than the grey, the sorrel, or the bay. 
We cannot avoid being astonished at the confusion which 
prevails in veterinary works on the origin and causes of farcy. 
That disease having been observed only in some parts of Europe, 
and in climates and under influences nearly analogous, an exact 
etiology of it cannot be established, without all the conditions 
attached to its development in all the different countries in which 
it exists having been observed and' studied. 
A great variety of circumstances, acting at once on the interior 
and the exterior of domesticated animals, are concerned in the 
production of farcy. 
Journal, Aug, 1834. 
[To be continued ] 
