36 RHEUMATIC LAMENESS. 



out, I found her halting exceedingly with the off fore leg : I exa- 

 mined it, and it proved to be precisely similar to a sprain, so 

 that, had I been ignorant of its spontaneous origin, I should have 

 called it 'a sprain in the back sinews'. I could not at the time, 

 nor have I been able since to, account for it*." In the year follow- 

 ing, viz. 1830, the late Mr. Castley sent a paper expressly on 

 the subject of " metastasis of inflammation," to The Veterina- 

 RTANt, wherein, after observing, *' we have all of us occasionally 

 witnessed instances of what is called acute founder, or inflamma- 

 tion of the feet, occurring as a supervening consequence of severe 

 or long-continued attacks of pneumonia," he goes on to say — " But 

 I think I have more frequentl}'' observed a painful inflammatory 

 aflection of the tendons and bursse about the back of the large 

 pastern joint, appearing as a subsequent consequence in cases of 

 this kind, and which is often confined to one leg onl}^, but some- 

 times shifts from one limb to another. I am not aware that this 

 circumstance has yet been noticed by any veterinary writer." 

 The fact, however, had been noticed and recorded by myself, as t 

 have already shewn, in the foregoing year. 



Two interesting cases are brought forward by Mr. Castley in 

 the paper alluded to; one well calculated to shew the erratic or 

 metastatic, or, as we have regarded it, the rheumatic character of 

 the disease ; the other worthy our notice from the circumstance of 

 its passing out of hand uncured. The cases are these : — 



Case 1. " A young horse belongmg to the regiment (the 12th Lancers, 

 stationed at the time at Brighton) had been suifering under a very severe 

 and long-protracted attack of inflammation of the lungs : the case was for some 

 time doubtful : ultimately, however, it seemed to be doing well, when, aU of 

 a sudden, the patient was seized with lameness in two legs (the near-fore 

 and off-hind), but more especially the near-fore, where he evinced much 

 pain, on the slightest pressure, over the back part of the pastern joint. 

 Local bleeding and the warm bath were the remedies employed ; and, on the 

 third or fourth day, this affection as suddenly shifted into the two opposite 

 legs ; appearing, however, in a less violent form. A few days afterwards it 

 seemed to leave the fore extremities altogether, and to fix itself in the two 

 hind ones ; then, in a few days more, it changed back again into the near- 

 fore leg, where it first began, and there it ultimately ended ; leaving, how- 

 ever, no bad effects behind. The horse perfectly recovered." 



* Vetertnariax, vol. ii, p. 283. f Vol. iii, p. 1.59, ef sfcj. 



