440 SPORADIC DISEASES. 



ossification of the walls of the heart. The soft structures above 

 and below the affected joints in horned cattle sometimes swell, 

 suppurate, and continue to discharge pus for a lengthened period, 

 the animal rapidly wasting, and finally becoming worthless. 



Both in the acute and chronic forms the pericardium, endo- 

 cardium, and cardiac valves may become inflamed. This com- 

 plication, however, is of much more frequent occurrence during 

 an acute attack. The pulse becomes jerky and wiry, the heart's 

 action short, sharp, and angry, the cardiac impulse is often 

 awanting, the pulse intermittent, and a to-and-fro sound accom- 

 panies the heart's movements. 



PATHOLOGY. 



Wliat the true nature of the so-called rheumatic poison really 

 is, pathologists are not agreed upon, some asserting that it is 

 lactic acid, whilst others are not satisfied on this point. It is 

 certain, however, that the urine both in man and in the lower 

 animals assumes an acidity which is quite unnatural; but the 

 acid found in it is not the lactic, but the uric and its salts in 

 man, and the hippuric and its salts in the herbivora. The sug- 

 gestion that rheumatism is due to the presence of an excess of 

 lactic acid originated with Dr. Prout. The lactic acid originates 

 by the conversion of the starch of the food into lactic acid, which 

 then combines with oxygen to form carbonic acid and water; 

 and anything which interferes with this change may lead to the 

 accumulation of the acid in the system. Dr. Garrod, however, 

 found the serum of the blood distinctly alkaline in thirty-five 

 cases of rheumatism in the human being. 



In every case of rheumatism met with by myself, and where 

 an examination of the serum has been made, it has been found 

 alkaline. The only experiments which go at aU to establish the 

 connection of lactic acid with rheumatism are those of Dr. W. B, 

 Eichardson, who injected lactic acid into the peritoneal cavity 

 of dosfs, and found that it caused death, not by inducing 

 peritonitis, but peri and endocarditis, with thickening of the 

 cardiac valves; the post mortem examination showing a red 

 thickened state of the mitral valve, with fibrous bead-like 

 deposits on its surface; the endocardium lining the left ven- 

 tricle intensely inflamed, resembling bright red velvet, and the 

 aortic valve of a deep red colour, and its borders thickened 



