SYMPTOMS. 247 



found excessively painful ; they may or may not be tense and 

 swollen. 



The articulations most liable to be thus affected in the 

 horse are the stifle and fetlock, the hock and knee less so. 

 When the pain in the joints is severe the horse is dejected, 

 and at times restless. The swellings, when occurring, show 

 themselves at those parts of the joints which are least bound 

 with ligament, and by their peculiar fluctuation are at once 

 indicative of capsular distension. The advent of the swelling 

 does not seem to relieve the pain, which is augmented by the 

 least handling or movement of the joint, the latter when 

 enforced causing copious perspiration. All these symptoms 

 may be most marked, and for several hours the condition of 

 the limb or limbs remains much as indicated, when, in a most 

 unaccountable manner, the pain and swelling become alleviated 

 or entirely disappear, only to be reproduced in one or more of 

 the as yet unaffected extremities, this shifting, with relief and 

 exacerbation of symptoms, being distmctly characteristic of 

 rheumatism. 



At this, the earlier stage, there is merely increased vascular 

 action, with an evident increase of the natural fluid of the 

 joint. Very shortly, however, should the symptom not abate, 

 certain structural changes set in; the synovial membrane 

 becomes thickened, soft, and not so clear-looking ; while flakes 

 of plastic material show themselves in the more fluid contents 

 of the capsule, to the walls of which, as also to the loose 

 sjmovial membrane, they become attached. In exceptional 

 cases the process does not stop here ; the fibrinous exudations 

 do not seem very capable of taking on healthy organizations 

 so as to finish the adhesive process, but the morbid action 

 proceeds to the production of a puriform material. With 

 these changes in conditions are developed a change or new 

 train of symptoms, both constitutional and local. 



The general febrile symptoms, which may have become 

 somewhat lessened, exhibit exacerbation ; the local pain and 

 swelling increase, while the peculiar fluctuation convej^s to the 

 touch the tolerable certainty that something more than simple 

 serum or synovia is now contained within. Following the 

 evacuation of this material there will generally be relief from 

 pain — not, however, of long continuance, as the inflammatory 



