72 TEEATME>rT OF DISEASES 



on the system of man to develop an inflammatory disease of this 

 character, are, with unerring certainty, operative on the inferior 

 animal. 



In plain language, rheumatism is rheumatism, in whatever system 

 you find it ; it is always characterized by pain in "joints" and mus- 

 cles ; action of the same generally augments pain, although our 

 patient, the horse, cannot always succeed in convincing his owner 

 of the fact. It occurs among men and horses at all seasons of the 

 year; yet, at the period of sudden transitions from heat to cold, it is 

 most prevalent. Animals that are heated by exercise and then suf- 

 fered to " cool oiF" without ordinary care, are very apt to become 

 the subjects of this malady ; so that prevention, to a certain extent, 

 is within the province of all rational beings, and in the exercise of 

 preventive measures, we may, in common parlance, "stave oflT," for 

 a time, an acute disease, although it be hereditary. Rheumatism, 

 like gout, is hereditary ; no educated physician ever opposes this 

 proposition ; it develops itself in the predisposed. The indirect 

 causes are, obstructed perspiration. Keep the animal comfortably 

 warm and avoid undue exposure, and then we have a remedy against 

 the development of hereditary rheumatism. 



Mr. Finlay Dun thus discourses on rheumatism : " Rheumatism is 

 neither so common, nor are its symptoms so well marked in horses, 

 as in cattle. When, however, it does occur in the horse, it mani- 

 fests the same well-known appearances which characterize it in all 

 animals. It. afi'ects the fibrous tissues of joints, the coverings of 

 muscles, tendons, valves about the heart, and larger vessels, and 

 manifests a peculiar tendency to shift from one part of the body to 

 another, often aflfecting, in succession, all the larger joints; at one 

 time, chiefly in the neck, at another, in the back and loins, while in 

 many of its more acute attacks, it appears to involve almost every 

 portion of fibrous and fibro-serous tissues throughout the body. In 

 all its various types it exhibits a full, strong, hard, and unyielding 

 pulse, caused by the inflammation involving the serous and fibro- 

 serous tissues of the heart and circulating vessels. During its 

 existence various excrementitious matters accumulate in the blood, 

 and the fibrinous constituents of the same exceed their normal pro- 

 portions, as indicated by the production of the buify coat on the 

 blood. In severe or badly treated cases, the inflammation is very 

 apt to be transformed from the joints and muscles, to the heart and 

 its investing membranes, and it is the danger of this change in the 

 Beat of the disease that renders rheumatism so formidable, and often 

 so fatal. It always leaves the parts afl'ected so altered as to be 

 extremely predisposed to subsequent attacks, and it is more than 

 probable that this altered condition is reproduced in the progeny of 

 rheumatic subjects, and constitutes in them the inherent tendency 

 to the disease. 



"Horses sometimes suffer from rheumutic inflammation in the 

 fibrous sheathing envelops of the muscles of the neck, constituting 

 what is popularly known as the chords. When thus aftVcted, the 

 animal is very stiff", remains as much as possible in one position, and 

 is unwilling to bend his neck either one way or the other, or to ele- 

 vate or depress his head. There is always more or less fever, with 

 a strong, full pulse. Sometimes, as in lumbago, in the human sub- 



