30 PROCEEDINGS OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOL AT ALFORT. 
the prevention of it that veterinary surgeons ought to direct all 
their efforts. Having been occupied in a series of experiments 
on the effects produced on animals by the re-absorption of pus, 
M. Renault has proved that farcy, and particularly acute farcy, 
often knows not any other cause than this re-absorption. 
Alteration in the Blood. —Some recent cases have 
enabled M.M. Renault and Delafond to continue their inquiries 
into the diseases produced by, or complicated with alteration of 
the blood. The extreme and almost sudden debility with which 
the horse is seized—the infiltration of the conjunctival mem¬ 
branes, which are of a yellowish red, or a livid colour—the soft¬ 
ness and little development of the pulse, when compared with the 
great force with which the heart often beats—the looseness of the 
hair in an early stage of the disease—the appetite, which the 
horse retains until the last moment—and, finally, the peculiar 
phenomena which the blood presents when it is first drawn from 
the vein,—these are, in their opinion, the principal symptoms of 
this affection. 
The enlarged size, and the softness of the spleen—the semifluid 
state, and the black or deep violet colour of the substance con¬ 
tained in the meshes of its collated tissue—the numerous ecchy- 
moses which are found in different organs—the discoloration and 
the softness of the red muscles—the sero-sanguineous effusions 
which are often found in the serous cavities, and particularly in the 
pericardium, without any apparent lesion of the membranes 
which contain them, and the quickness with which the carcasses 
putrefy, are the lesions which these professors deem the most 
characteristic of this malady. 
Slight bleedings at the commencement, to which a tonic and 
afterwards an analeptic treatment have quickly followed, have 
perfectly succeeded with the greater part of the animals that 
have been placed under our care. 
Wounds of the Sole. —Among the injuries to which the 
plantar surface of the foot of the horse is exposed, the most 
serious, without exception, are wounds from stubs or nails, pene¬ 
trating through the aponeurosis of the perforans tendon into the 
navicular joint, and making an orifice of greater or less size, 
through which the synovia escapes. 
Many saddle and cabriolet horses, and also some of heavier 
draught, were brought to the infirmary in the course of last year 
with wounds of this kind. They were all operated upon, but the 
treatment was not successful in ail. 
Those on which the operation was performed on the day in 
which the accident occurred, or the following day, have been 
cured, and quickly returned to their work, however serious the 
