ON FARCY. 
147 
depots which are often observed in the horse. The skin of the 
latter is thicker, and does not permit the purulent matter so rea¬ 
dily to escape. 
The perishing, the dropping off of some of the extremities, is 
a frequent termination of the disease in men. This is confined 
in the horse to the fall of the hoof, and has not affected the parts 
above, and which in this animal are larger and more strongly 
knit together. As to the symptoms which precede and accom¬ 
pany the developement of this disease in man, febrile symptoms, 
disturbed digestion, and general languor, are almost invariably 
observed ; they are not, however, seen in the horse. A well- 
known law explains this difference. If the same malady affects 
various classes of beings, the symptoms are more serious, general, 
and complicated in him who occupies the highest rank; and they 
diminish in intensity and extent in proportion as the number of 
the organs and the complication of the functions diminish. 
In those parts of the East that we have visited, wherever le¬ 
prosy appears, farcy is its inseparable companion. 
If leprosy has disappeared in Europe, we must search for the 
reason in that civilization which has done so much for man and 
so little for the horse. 
Leprosy seldom exists among the negroes, and farcy rarely at¬ 
tacks a black horse. 
The causes are similar—animals that live for a long time on one 
description of food are liable to farcy. Those that are affected with 
leprosy live either on salt-fish, as in Greece and Cyprus; or on doura 
and bad cheese, as in Palestine, Egypt, and Arabia. So horses 
that are fed on chaff, and barley, and oats alone, or on chaff and 
hay, are they better kept, so far as preservation from farcy goes, 
in proportion as these articles are extended? We think not; 
but horses that are fed on a mixture of animal and vegetable 
food are not susceptible of the disease. The horses of the Sherif 
Ali, although kept in places where farcy was most frequent, 
were exempt from it. 
The number of farcied horses surpassed that of the human 
beings that were leprous, because man, however miserable may 
be his situation, always finds some means of sustaining himself 
against the influence of deleterious agents, and especially atmo¬ 
spheric ones. 
Finally, the success which we have obtained, both on men and 
on the quadruped, by an analogous mode of treatment, com¬ 
pletes the confirmation of the identity of leprosy and farcy. 
