538 Veterinary Medicine. 



and pitting on pressure. On white skins sparsely covered by hair 

 there is marked redness and congestion, the veins standing out 

 prominently and the arteries above the joint pulsating strongly. 

 When the tendinous sheaths are involved, they stand out as 

 elastic lines following the course of the tendons, and with more 

 or less pasty swelling adjacent. 



In some cases, however, the swelling may be entirely absent, 

 and the trouble is to be located only by the local tenderness and 

 pain during motion. 



Small, hard, pea-like, subcutaneous nodosities were first 

 noticed by Floriep, in 1843, in rheumatism in man, and have been 

 met with in different cases in the horse. Rodet fils met with great 

 numbers of these nodules crepitating under pressure, in a horse 

 that had suffered for months from chronic rheumatism. 



Acute pain on moving the affected joint or tendon is a mo.st 

 characteristic symptom. The horse goes dead lame, walks on 

 three legs, or with great stiffness, and avoids as far as possible 

 all flexion of the joint. If left alone the animal stands stock still, 

 never moving from the place, or in the worst cases lies down 

 and refuses to rise. If compelled to walk his suffering is shown 

 by hastened breathing, dilated nostrils, anxious, pinched 

 countenance and low plaintive neighing. The affected joint is 

 held semiflexed, to relieve the tension, the pastern is habitually 

 more upright, and if tlie foot is lifted and the affected joint bent 

 or extended, the animal winces, or resists, and tries to draw away 

 the limb and groans. The movements of the affected joint in 

 walking or under manipulation, are often attended by cracking 

 which may be both felt and heard. It has been variously attrib- 

 uted to lack of synovial lubrication (Cadeac), and ulceration of 

 the articular cartilage (Lafosse), yet it may occur from the con- 

 strained position assumed, as in the case of a man attempting to 

 walk noiselessly on tip toe, and in other cases from the extension 

 of false membranes, or of rigid or contracted binding ligaments. 



Rheumatism of the fetlock and sesamoid pulley, as the most 

 common form in solipeds, demands a special notice. The swelling 

 of one fetlock, of the two fore, of the two hind or of all four at 

 once, extends beyond the limits of both joint and sesamoid pulley 

 and may form a general engorgement or stockijig which serves to 

 hide the synovial distension. Pressure however shows that while 



