It is true the disease can be communicated by inoculation. But that source of farcy is of very small importance. Not one case in a thousand thus originates. Farcy is essentially a skin disease. It commences with specific inflammation of the superficial absorbents. This inflammation leads to suppuration and to ulceration. Abscesses first appear. They may come on any part of the body. They seem to be, in the primary instance, lumps or hard enlargements. Something of the annexed form is first observed. There may be one of these, or there may be many. Ultimately they burst or are opened. Apparently healthy matter then issues from the interior. But the first discharge being released, the wound does not heal. The edges grow rough, the center of the sore becomes pale, and moistened by a thin, semi-transparent fluid. Then, if the neighborhood of the sore be felt, cords, more or less thin, will be discovered running from it toward some other lumps on the body.
A FARCY BUD.
Such is the distinguishing sign by which to recognize farcy. Lumps appear, which prove to be abscesses. They, after discharging, do not heal; they become ulcers. From them run certain cords, which are the swollen lymphatic or absorbents. Till the enlargement of the absorbents is discerned, a man, from the other signs, may suspect, but he cannot pronounce with certainty, the disease to be farcy.
If a recent case of farcy be slaughtered and dissected, the affection appears to go no deeper than the skin. The cellular tissue will exhibit indications of dropsy, which invariably is present. The muscles will be pallid and flabby, suggesting bodily debility; but, to most observers, such signs will be all that is discernible.
Is farcy, then, strictly, a local disorder? Can such be asserted of a malady which appears to be so constitutional in its origin? Is there nothing continuous with the skin? Yes, there is. Intimately connected with the outward covering of the body, imperceptibly blending with it, and capable, after exposure, of assuming its appearance, is the mucous membrane. Mucous membrane lines the interior of the body, and is very abundantly supplied with absorbents. The French, who are far more minute observers and more accomplished dissectors than the generality of English surgeons, have, in cases of farcy, detected signs which assure us the disease is not strictly an external affection. It has an internal and a deep-seated origin, as is evidenced by the discovery of a few tubercles upon the mucous membrane of the interior.
The course of the disease would likewise teach us to arrive at this conclusion. The appetite often fails; sometimes it becomes voracious. The matter is, by pressure, to be squeezed through the skin. The thirst becomes torturing; the horse will cry for water. All it drinks, however, passes quickly through the body, and the desire for fluid cannot be satisfied. At last—as though to prove the correctness of our opinion concerning the constitutional nature of farcy—glanders breaks forth.
Glanders and farcy seem to be the same disease, modified by certain circumstances to which the animal is exposed. Thus a horse, inoculated with the matter of glanders, may become farcied; or an animal, infected with the taint of farcy, may exhibit glanders. These results, together with the fact of a glandered horse displaying farcy prior to death, and of a farcied animal exhibiting glanders previous to decease, are pretty conclusive evidence.
FARCY ON THE INSIDE OF THE
HORSE'S THIGH, WHERE THE SKIN
IS THIN AND THE HAIR ALMOST ABSENT.