RHEUMATIC LAMENESS- 43 



instances of a similar nature, but not going to the same violent 

 extent: perhaps, because the animals were not exposed to such a 

 violent exciting cause." 



Metastasis of Rheumatic Inflammation on the Heart. 

 A striking instance of this occurred in my own practice ; had it not 

 been for which, so rare must the occurrence be considered, that I 

 hardly know where I should have looked for a parallel case, to 

 establish this point in hippopathology, had I possessed any reason 

 to suppose such a translation of disease ever took place in the 

 horse. The mare died of disease of the valves of the heart, and 

 her case would have been set down as one of 'primary cardiac 

 disease, had not, quite by accident, her hock, joints been subjected 

 to dissection. Both the joints were found to be highly diseased. 

 Their cavities were distended with synovia of a deep amber-yellow 

 colour, the fluid from one of them, actually collected, measuring an 

 ounce and a half. As it stood in the glass, the synovia appeared 

 loaded with flocculi of albumen ; a redundance of which substance 

 was fully demonstrated by addition of nitric acid, that throwing 

 down a copious creamy-white precipitate. The internal surface of 

 the capsule of the joint was covered with effused lymph, which 

 presented the same tinge of colour as the amber-coloured synovia. 

 And not only were the hock joints in a state of disease — though 

 they were most so — but other joints were found exhibiting simi- 

 lar aspects ; even the synovial sheaths shewed marks of it. And 

 there existed no doubt, pondering on all the circumstances of 

 the case, that the arthritic disease was consequent on an attack 

 of influenza, and that the morbid changes in the heart, which 

 proved the occasion of the mare's death, had occurred through 

 metastasis. The full particulars of this very interesting case will 

 be found related in The VETERINARIAN for January, 1846. 



