ANATOMICAL CHARACTERS. 245 



thickened both in their structure proper and also the cords 

 stretching from them to the papillary eminences of the cardiac 

 wall. When the morbid action in connection with the heart 

 has existed for a somewhat longer period prior to death, there 

 will be less fluid probably in the pericardial sac, the extra- 

 vasated inflammatory products will possess a greater consist- 

 ence and more distinct reticulation ; while on the cardiac 

 valves the depositions will have acquired a more perfectly 

 fibrinous character, and are better distinguished from the 

 valves upon which they are situated. 



The joints and other situations of the limbs which have 

 been the seats of local inflammatory action are swollen from 

 the infiltration of the integral textures of the different struc- 

 tures invaded, and the capsules of joints and sheaths of 

 tendons are distended with simply an extra amount of the 

 natural fluid, or with a mixture of this and sero-cellular 

 matter. 



As it is generally in the earlier stages of the disease that a 

 fatal termination occurs, it is the softer tissues which most 

 distinctly show the results of the diseased action ; the harder 

 textures, as cartilage and bone, are not at this stage much 

 changed. The entire structures surrounding the joints, the 

 ligaments and tendons, are frequently adherent to the connec- 

 tive and subcutaneous tissues by the extension to these 

 of the specific diseased action, and the intimate union of all 

 by the diffusion of the products of the inflammatory process. 

 In the more advanced cases ulcerative changes occur, and 

 sinuous communications extend from the capsule to the sur- 

 face ; while peculiar and extensive alterations, as loss of sub- 

 stance, of cartilage, expansion of bone-tissue with deposition of 

 hme, salts, and subsequent eburnation of the altered articular 

 surface, are likely to follow should the animal live long enough. 



Symptoms. — In many well-marked cases of acute rheumatism, 

 particularly in young animals, I have noticed that there has 

 preceded the development of the more characteristic symptoms 

 a deranged condition of the intestinal canal, with a particular 

 acridity of the evacuations ; also, in the majority of such 

 cases, either showing themselves antecedently or synchron- 

 ously with certain local changes, there are the usual febrile 

 symptoms — elevation of internal and external temperature, as 



