384 
MR. YOUATT’s VETERINARY LECTURES. 
bears too strong a resemblance to farcy. M. Sorillon, veterinary 
surgeon at Absac, in the department of the Gironde in France^ 
has placed upon record the most satisfactory account of this dis^ 
ease of doubtful character. In four oxen, each of which had con¬ 
siderable cough, a large corded absorbent could be traced from 
the inside of the upper part of the fore-arm to the fetlock. Farcy 
buttons were evident, not only to the touch but to the eye, 
through the whole extent of the corded vessel. Most of them 
were hard, scirrhous; but others suppurated and ulcerated. It 
was the first time that he had seen a disease of this kind in the 
ox, and he was struck with, and alarmed by, its similarity to 
farcy, and he adopted the measures to which he would have had 
recourse in a case of farcy. He applied the budding iron ; the 
wounds healed, the cordiness of the absorbent was gradually di¬ 
minished, and the cough disappeared . Two months afterwards, 
however, the farcy buttons and the corded absorbent were seen 
again, and the cough returned at the same time. Two were per¬ 
fectly cured, and of the other two, including the one that ex¬ 
perienced a relapse, he could gain no after-intelligence. These 
cases occurred in the space of about three years, and the disease 
was not communicated to any of the oxen that fed in the same 
pasture. These are suspicious cases, but we must suspend our 
judgment until we have accumulated more facts. If they were 
cases of farcy, the disease assumed a very mild character, and 
was unusually manageable. I am far from sure that there might 
not have been some disease of the foot—foot-rot—although not 
of a very malignant kind, otherwise M. Sorillon would have 
noticed it, and connected it with the supposed farcy. Cattle are 
occasionally subject to ulcers about the joints, and then these 
little buttons, or buds, are generally seen running along the course 
of the veins. I have seen them continue in their hard state for 
several months, when the farmer would not have any thing done 
to them, and at length they have dispersed; but, at other times, 
they have burst, and ulcers have been formed exceedingly diffi¬ 
cult to heal, and the matter from which has corroded, and ul¬ 
cerated the neighbouring parts. When there did not appear to 
be any great swelling of the foot, or any ulceration, I have known 
the inflammation extend up the leg, and involve the whole of the 
cellular membrane of that extremity, and even destroy the animal, 
by the constitutional disturbance which it created. I have now 
in the house a plain and palpable case of that, in a deer, that 
died at the gardens of the Zoological Society, from pure irritative 
fever, occasioned by inflammation of the foot, foot-rot; and the 
absorbents were here corded, but not buttoned. We shall know 
more about these things in due time. 
