54^ Veterinary Medicine. 



The pig is found down, indisposed to rise, and when up, stands 

 drawn together with limbs rigid and feet resting on the toes. 

 He will often point one toe to the ground repeatedly, before rest- 

 ing on the foot, or shift the weight uneasily from foot to foot. 

 If moved he grunts plaintively and if handled squeals. 



The affected joints may be surrounded by hot tender swell- 

 ings or the}^ may be nearl}' normal in outline, but they are 

 always very sensitive to pressure and above all to flexion and 

 extension, and the skin is usually hypersemic and red. There 

 may be engorgments of the lymphatics on the inner side of the 

 limbs, and chaps and cracks in the flexures of the joints. Sup- 

 purations may follow (Graignard) suggesting a complex infec- 

 tion. 



There is little appetite and though the disease becomes sub- 

 acute or chronic there is a steady loss of condition or at least 

 a failure to thrive. 



Benion's reference to a coincident or sequent inflammation of 

 the respiratory or digestive organs and Spinola's similar refer- 

 ence to pleurisy are strongly suggestive of swine plague and hog 

 cholera. Any manifest disposition to sliift from one part to 

 another and any concurrent disorder of the heart, other than 

 simple palpitation is strongly confirmatory of rheumatism. 



The disease tends to recovery in from four to twenty days, 

 or to pass into the chronic form In this state the symptoms 

 are materially mitigated. Fever is absent, but the appetite, di- 

 gestion and assimilation are poor, the animal remains stunted, 

 emaciated or unthrifty, there is a disposition to lie most of the 

 time under the litter, and when up it moves stiffly with short 

 steps, semi-flexed joints and upright digits. Sometimes the 

 joints are permanentl}' swollen and rigid by reason of thicken- 

 ing and shortening of the binding ligaments, b}- the organiza- 

 tion of false membranes or by anchylosis. 



Muscular Rheumatism in Swine. This appears to be 

 rarely seen as an independent disease, l^ut appears at times to 

 coincide with the arthritic form. In such cases the back is 

 arched and very sore to the touch or to pressure. It must be dis- 

 tinguished from the musctalar soreness of trichinosis which oc_ 

 curs in infested localities, after trichinous food or water, is pre. 

 ceded by digestive disorder and diarrhoea, and by the passage of 



