Let every man who keeps cart-horses view a case of water farcy as a caution, proceeding direct from nature, that the management of his stable requires immediate change. The work is too heavy; pecuniary loss will soon follow, if the system be not amended; true is it, the writer has known men rated "good" in the world's report, and who were very "professing Christians" in their own esteem; he has known these men never to give more than ten pounds for a horse, and, at the time of purchase, the premeditated sin was to work out the life over which money had established authority. It is the most offensive feature of what is termed modern civilization that, rarely as individuals, never as a society, do mankind entertain the slightest sympathy for the animals by which they are surrounded. Most men are only eager for the services of the horse; they do not regard its ailments with the smallest feeling; they seek a veterinary surgeon merely to restore their animal to labor, and care only for a fellow-creature's sufferings as these disable it from toiling for their profit.
Water farcy is, however, an admonition which all men should understand; the horse, when thus attacked, announces that farcy hovers over the stable. Let the work of the team be made less prolonged and less exhausting; let the provender be improved. Green food is no sufficient sustenance for a working horse; it may fill the stomach, but it brings down the belly, and it impoverishes the blood. The team may not travel fast, but they are out for many hours; generally they cover more ground than horses of a quicker pace; they also pull weights before which none but a cart-house would be harnessed. On the appearance of water farcy, therefore, let the distances be shortened and the loads lightened.
Then, for remedial measures, let the diet be nourishing, the bed cleanly, the house drained and airy. As for exercise, let the horse, so soon as it can bear the motion, be gently led out morning, noon, and night, for one hour each time. Do not turn the creature from the stable to the field. Grass may be the cheapest food; but it never yet did a domesticated animal good "to blow itself out" upon such a diet.
As for medicine, when the limb can bear friction, let it be well and often hand-rubbed; the oftener and the longer the better. Every morning saturate it with pails of cold water; wipe it dry immediately, and then set to work hand-rubbing the leg. This is all that is absolutely necessary, save that if the lameness continues longer than the first day, a few punctures may be made through the skin. These should be equally distributed, each being about three-eighths of an inch deep, and one inch long, so as to divide the skin but not to wound the muscles beneath. Through these incisions the fluid, by which the limb is distended, will escape. As for physic, the following ball should be given every morning, if the proprietor can think a sick servant merits such trouble and expense:—
| Iodide of iron | One drachm. |
| Powdered cantharides | Two grains. |
| Powdered arsenic | One grain. |
| Cayenne pepper | One scruple. |
| Sulphate of iron | One drachm. |
| Treacle and linseed meal | A sufficiency. |
| Make into a ball, and give. |
This should be made as it is wanted, for, by keeping, the ingredients become hard, and are apt, when given in that state, to cause injury to the animal.
By such slight and simple means, water farcy has generally been removed; but no delay should occur in having recourse to them, as some cases will set all endeavors at defiance, and delay is always dangerous where health is concerned. A few days of neglect will often permit the limb to become organized. It ceases to pit on pressure. Fibrin has been effused under the skin. The swollen leg is even harder than is the healthy member. Then the horse, should it escape true farcy, will carry about an enlarged member for the duration of its remaining life.
PURPURA HEMORRHAGICA.
This disease formerly was unknown, though at present it appears to be rather common. What is there can shut up the sight of man like ignorance? It is but fair to conclude that purpura was as frequent in past times as it now is; yet men, having professional zeal to quicken their recognitions, could not read what was before their eyes, because they had not been tutored to know and to understand it. It was so with our forefathers, and, we may not deny, it is so with the existing generation. Science begets an infatuation. Men, because they have learned much, imagine nature has no more lessons to enforce. At all events, they act as though such were their convictions; else why is it that genius every now and then startles pedantry, by widening the sphere of human perceptions?