RHEUMATISM. 155 



is scarcely the possibility of any serious injury to the anterior portion of the 

 spine. The case is very different with regard to the hind limbs and their 

 attachment to the trunk; they are necessarily liable to many a shock and 

 sprain injurious to the spine and its contents. The loins and the back oftenest 

 exhibit the lesions of palsy, because there are some of the most violent muscu- 

 lar efforts, and there is the greatest movement and the least support. It may, 

 consequently be taken as an axiom to guide the judgment of the practitioner 

 that palsy in the horse almost invariably proceeds from disease or injury of 

 the spine. 



On inquiry it is almost invariably found that the horse had lately fallen, or 

 had been worked exceedingly hard, or that, covered with perspiration, he had 

 been left exposed to cold and wet. It commences generally in one hind 

 leg, or perhaps both are equally affected. The animal can scarcely walk he 

 walks on his fetlocks instead of his soles he staggers at every motion. At 

 length he falls. He is raised with difficulty, or he never rises again. The sen- 

 sibility of the part seems for a while to be dreadfully increased; but, in general, 

 this gradually subsides it sinks below the usual standard it ceases altogether. 



If he is examined after death, there will usually, about the region of the 

 loins, be inflammation of the membranes of the spinal cord, or of the cord itself. 

 The medullary matter will be found of a yellow colour, or injected with spots 

 of blood, or it will be softened, and have become semifluid. 



The treatment is simple enough. It should commence with bleeding, and, 

 as has been already recommended in inflammatory cases, until the circulation 

 is evidently affected until the pulse begins to falter or the horse to reel. To 

 this should follow a dose of physic strong compared with the size of the animal. 

 The loins should be covered with a mustard poultice frequently renewed. The 

 patient should be warmly clothed, supplied plentifully with mashes, but without 

 a grain of corn in them ; and frequent injections should be had recourse to. 

 This will soon render it evident whether the patient will recover or die. If 

 favourable symptoms appear, the horse must not be in the slightest degree 

 neglected, nor the medical treatment suspended. There is no disease in which 

 the animal is more liable to a relapse, or where a relapse would be so fatal. 

 No misapprehension of the disease, or false humanity, should induce the attend- 

 ant to give the smallest quantity of corn or of tonic medicine. Palsy in the horse 

 is an inflammatory complaint, or the result of inflammation. 



If the heat and tenderness are abating, and the animal regains, to a slight 

 degree, the use of his limbs, or if it is becoming a case of chronic palsy, an 

 extensive and stimulating charge over the loins should be immediately applied. 

 It will accomplish three purposes : there will be the principle of counter- 

 irritation a defence against the cold and a useful support of the limbs. 



RHEUMATISM. 



It is only of late years that this has been admitted into the list of the diseases 

 of the horse, although it is in truth a very common affection. It is frequent in 

 old horses that have been early abused, and among younger ones whose powers 

 have been severely taxed. The lameness is frequently excessive, and the 

 pain is evidently excruciating. The animal dares not to rest the slightest portion 

 of its weight on the limb, or even to touch the ground with his toe. He is 

 heaving at the flanks, sweating profusely, his countenance plainly indicative of 

 the agony he feels ; but there is at first no heat, or swelling, or tenderness. 

 With proper treatment, the pain and the lameness gradually disappear ; but in 

 other instances the fasciae of the muscles become thickened the ligaments are 

 also thickened and rigid the capsules of the joint are loaded with a glairy 

 fluid, and the joint is evidently enlarged. This ia simply rheumatism ; but 



