Symptoms of Acute Articular Rheumatism in the Horse. 537 



may vary from normal to 107° or 108° F. in severe attacks. In 

 many cases the fever and lameness appear simultaneously, the 

 former being in ratio with the extent and severity of the latter, 

 but not infrequentl}' the elevation of temperature precedes the 

 articular symptoms, and then it is to be considered as concurrent 

 with the internal lesions — cardiac, pericardial or otherwise. In 

 other cases the articular lesions and lameness precede by several 

 days the appearance of the fever. So far as we know the fever 

 never antedates the occurrence of some local lesion, external or 

 internal. 



The joints affected are verv varied. The fetlock is the most 

 frequently attacked, but some of the other larger joints, the hock, 

 knee, shoulder, stifle, hip and elbow are often involved or ex- 

 clusively affected. The adjacent tendons and their syno\ial 

 sheaths are very often implicated ; the attack is very prone to 

 show a bilateral symmetry, the same joints (right and left) on the 

 corresponding fore or liiml limbs, suffering at once, or, as in the 

 case of the fetlocks, all four are simultaneously attacked. A 

 joint that is weak b_v reason of previous injury or disease is espe- 

 cially liable to suffer, and is then less likel\- than joints that had 

 been previously healthy to undergo speedy improvement. When 

 the symptoms wander from joint to joint or from joint to muscle, 

 or fascia or tendon, the disease in its earlier seat seeming to 

 undergo almost complete resolution, while it advances with great 

 intensity in the newly affected joint or part, the occurrence is 

 highly significant.' These transitions often take place with great 

 rapidity. Thus the centre of suffering may shift from one joint 

 to another in an hour, (Magnin, Cadeac), or from a limb to the 

 loins in a quarter of an hour (L,ewis). The fact that the inflam- 

 mation remains fixed in one or several joints, is not, however, 

 proof of the absence of rheumatism. ' A joint with a primary 

 weakness or injury may remain the seat of disease through even 

 a chronic rheumatism. 



Tlie affected joint is usually swollen, hot and tender the tender- 

 ness being as a rule gieatest where the capsular ligament is 

 pressed upon. These symptoms are very evident in joints that 

 approach the surface, and obscure in such as are thickly covered 

 by muscle (shoulder, hip). The swelling is soft, or tense and 

 elastic (especially over the synovial membrane), or oedematous 



