AS TAUGHT AT ALFORT. 443 
often communicating with the interior of the cord, and thus per- 
mitting the suppurated matter to run out. 
Third form .—A swelling usually indolent, more or less volu¬ 
minous, more or less extended, appearing on some part of the 
body, and most particularly on the extremities or the chest. 
The coat appears thicker—it is dull, rough, and bristling. The 
skin becomes thick, more or less hard, tense, dry, and sometimes 
buttony and uneven, and then tumid, smooth, and glistening. 
Very soon little spots (inflammations of the skin) isolated, and 
more or less numerous, form on different parts of the surface ; in 
others, little lymphatic or sebaceous glands form themselves into 
abscesses, and discharge an ichorous fluid, often so acrid as to 
corrode the parts over which it runs. The edges of these super¬ 
ficial ulcers are irregular, pale, and everted. The skin, every 
where irritated, becomes cracked in some places and disorganized 
in others; then a great quantity of yellowish viscid fluid is dis¬ 
charged, which, drying on the surface, irritates it still more. 
Very soon there appear on several points cancerous sores, cor¬ 
roding ulcers, and perfect cutaneous cancerous wounds. Beside 
this, the buds and cords are sometimes observed, especially about 
the course of the subcutaneous veins, which suppurate, become 
abscesses, approach nearer and nearer, become confluent, and 
concur to augment the ravages of the disease and the disorgani¬ 
zation of the parts. 
Whatever be the appearance under which the farcy affection 
presents itself, the flow and accumulation of fluid, in a word, 
the development of the swelling, is sometimes accompanied by 
tension, heat, and local pains, more or less severe, and which 
determine, in irritable subjects, a greater or less marked fever of 
reaction. But very soon the symptoms of sympathetic reaction 
insensibly disappear, the heat and pain diminish, the disease 
remains for a longer or shorter space of time perfectly stationary, 
during which, nevertheless, an intestine process, accompanied by 
a return of the heat and local pains, and sometimes also by a 
general febrile reaction, determines, more or less promptly, the 
slight or more perfect softening of the tumour. This, at length, 
opens of itself, often on the exterior, and continues to discharge 
during an indeterminate period ; but, in general, before this, the 
disease, affecting progressively different parts of the body, has 
produced a universal diathesis, almost always accompanied by a 
hectic fever, which soon destroys the patient. 
When the farcy buds or cords are developed on irritable ani¬ 
mals of a sanguine temperament, or in a part abundantly sup¬ 
plied with capillary arteries and veins, or with numerous nervous 
fibres, as the lips, nostrils, or eyelids, they are quickly softened. 
