PECULIAR TO HORSES. 73 



ject, it affects the muscles of the back and loins, causing stiiTncss, 

 tenderness, and pain, which are especially evinced on moving or 

 turning the animal. These rheumatic affections are very readily 

 produced in predisposed subjects by exposure to rain and cold, 

 especially when accompanied by overheating or exhaustion. 



" Rheumatism sometimes occurs in horses as a prominent symptom 

 of that epizootic affection which usually receives the much-abused 

 title of influenza. In such cases the rheumatism is of a somewhat 

 more sub-acute or chronic character than common, and is accompa- 

 nied by that low, debilitating fever so often the concomitant of epi- 

 zootic maladies. It usually affects all parts of the body susceptible 

 of the rheumatic inflammation, is attended particularly by thoso 

 symptoms which indicate disease of the heart and pericardium, as 

 an intermittent pulse, &c., and often terminates fatally by effusions 

 into the pleura or pericardium, thus causing death by arresting the 

 motions of the heart." 



The reader has now before him some of the most important 

 features of acute rheumatism, and I shall now allude to the 

 treatment. 



The remedies used by different practitioners are : Colchicum, cal- 

 omel, opium, Dovers powder, tartar emetic, cimicfuga racemosa, 

 hellebore, aconite, iodine, nitrate of potassa, acetate of ammonia ; 

 each article has its advocate, and at certain stages is indicated. 

 I have great faith in colchicum, yet have often succeeded in pro- 

 ducing a favorable termination in the use of guiacum, nitrate of 

 potassa, and liquor acetate of ammonia. 



The theory of the treatment of acute rheumatism, contemplates an- 

 tiphlogistics, to be continued so long as inflammatory symptoms shall 

 be severe ; yet we must exercise ordinary discretion in the use of 

 antiphlogistic remedies, for should we continue them until all inflam- 

 matory symptoms have subsided, we may purge, nauseate, and bleed 

 our patients into the vicinity of death's door, without accomplishing 

 our object. 



The old-fashioned method of combating an inflammatory diathe- 

 sis, in the use of lancet and drastic cathartics, is fast dying out, at 

 least a very marked change for the better is observed, and practi- 

 tioners, now, depend more on sedatives, diuretics, febrifuges, and 

 nauseants, than on the above. One of the principal objects in the 

 treatment of acute rheumatism is, to excite diaphoresis ; and in this 

 view we recommend a solution of acetate of ammonia, known as 

 Liquor Amtnonice Acetatis ; this is an excellent febrifuge, and dia- 

 phoretic, and may be given in broken doses to the amount of eight 

 ounces per day. One or two drachms of nitrate of potassa (com- 

 mon salt petre), may also be given in the form of bolus, yet in order 

 to insure diaphoresis, and prevent these agents from passing off by 

 the kidneys, the heat of the body must be augmented by clothing. 



Practitioners of human surgery are often in the habit of using 

 nitre, in much larger doses than we have dared to administer, yet, 

 in some cases, with marked benefit to the patient.* 



* Nitrate of Potassa. — In a case of synovial rheumatism this remedy was given by a Boston 

 physician, in a single dose of one ounce, dissolved in a pint and a half of barley water. This was 

 followed by one grain of opium. In fifteen hours the pulse was found reduced, and the pain abso- 

 lutely gone ; and in a few days the tongue was clean, and the swelling entirely abated. The remedy 



