266 MR. youatt’s veterinary lectures. 
that it was nearly three inches out of the perpendicular; and 
when forced to move forward, it was accomplished by a general 
lift of the fore-quarters and a quite straight knee. This circular 
exercise was continued, and the fetlock went on better than could 
have been expected: the wound closed, and he began to bear 
on it about the 20th. His exercise was kept up till March 9th, 
when he was taken out and led about daily; the knee gradually 
recovering its power and natural position. A considerable thick¬ 
ening of the joint took place, which threatened a complete an¬ 
chylosis ; and though for a long time it was wholly inflexible, 
yet he ultimately recovered almost its full extent of motion, and 
became sound, and is at this day a very useful horse. 
MR. YOUATT’S VETERINARY LECTURES, 
DELIVERED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON. 
LECTURE XI. 
Farcy—It is Inflammation and Ulceration of the Absorbents —• 
Only another Stage of Glanders—Its Treatment—Local and 
Constitutional—Caution as to supposed Cures. 
The Absorbents and their Function. —I shall have in due time to 
describe to you a set of vessels that are discharging a very im¬ 
portant duty— the absorbents. While by means of the arterial 
capillaries all the secretions are performed, and they are every 
where employed in building up the frame, the absorbents are no 
less diligently at work in taking up and carrying away in their 
turn every portion and part of it. There is no surface, there is 
no assignable spot, on which thousands of their little mouths do 
not open. Here are some beautiful injected preparations of the 
absorbents of various tissues and organs. 
The Absorbents take up the Matter of Glanders , and are in¬ 
flamed by it. —In the discharge of their duty, they not only take 
up that which is worn out and useless and innocuous, but that 
which is poisonous and destructive. They open upon the sur¬ 
faces of the glanderous chancres. They absorb a portion of the 
virus which is secreted from these ulcers; and as it passes along 
these little tubes, they suffer from its acrimonious quality: they 
are irritated, inflamed, thickened. Hence the corded veins of 
the farrier, or, rather, the thickened absorbents following the 
course of the veins. See in these preparations how closely they 
do follow them, not only in their smaller and superficial ramifi¬ 
cations, but their deeper-seated and larger a branches. 
W - . 4 
