260 SCROFULA — SPECIFIC ARTHRITIS. 



abscesses and collections of soft cheesy-looking material ; 2. In 

 retrogressive changes in the great gland-structures of the 

 abdomen and in the pulmonary substance, particularly its vas- 

 cular part. The local structural changes, those confined to 

 the joints, are not restricted to one tissue, but are met Avith in 

 all. Not merely is the enveloping membrane thickened and 

 changed, and the capsule distended with fluid, but the cartilage 

 of encrustation, the bone epiphyses, and the cartilage of develop- 

 ment are undergoing retrogressive changes. In the one case 

 there is rarefaction of the bone-tubes, and filling of them with 

 caseous material ; in the other, the matrix of the cartilage 

 softens, and the cell-elements increase. And these do not 

 occur as results of the local inflammatory action, as merely a 

 further development and extension of the process, but are 

 seen in many instances at the very outset of the disease. 



SjTnptoms and Management of this Condition. — The evidences 

 of this local development of a constitutional state of iU-health, 

 both of a systemic and local character, are sufficiently distinct 

 and attractive to enable us to distinguish it from every other 

 disease to which these young animals are liable. 



It is probably only when occurring as an enzobty or epizooty 

 that we are somewhat staggered to connect this general exten- 

 sion of the affection with an unhealthy condition of indivi- 

 dual constitution. And even here we may be much assisted 

 by recollecting that this systemic deterioration has generally 

 been culminating for generations, and that a general eruption 

 is only determined by pecuhar surrounding conditions. If we 

 are correct, or even nearly so, in attributing the general dis- 

 turbance and extensively distributed change of tissue-elements, 

 as well as the local phenomena or alterations more intimately 

 related to the articulations, chiefly to the existence of an 

 indwelling disposition, an agency of evil operating from 

 within, and probably received as an inheritance from progeni- 

 tors, only culminating in extensive and serious manifestations 

 when adverse influences are brought to bear from Avithout, it 

 wiU be easily understood how unsatisfactory all measures of 

 a curative character must be. The correct indications for the 

 control of all such disorders must move backwards long ante- 

 rior to birth, and obtain in the parents such a condition of 

 vigorous health and freedom of taint from inherited disease, as 



