INFECTIOUS RHEUMATISM IN YOUNG ANIMALS. 95 



colts mentioned the almost invariable existence of lesions in the umbilical 

 region. Bolinger in 1869 recognised the possibility of infection by way 

 of the umbilical vein. Roll and Guillebeau are of the same opinion, and 

 Morot's excellent study shows that here must be sought the most fre- 

 quent point of origin of the articular symptoms. In animals born in dirty 

 stables the umbilical cord becomes infected at the time of birth, or its 

 cicatrix a few days later. The result is the development of rapidly fatal 

 septicaemia, suppuration in the wound, omphalitis, omphalo-phlebitis, or 

 umbilical arteritis ; and to this infection are due the various complications, 

 which may appear almost immediately, as in the case of septicaemia of 

 calves, or may be deferred for a shorter or longer interval, for so long indeed 

 that the umbilicus may appear to have healed externally (infectious pneu- 

 monia and endocarditis, infectious arthritis, etc.). The umbilical cord 

 and the tissues surrounding the cicatrix form excellent culture grounds 

 for those micro-organisms which alwaj^s exist in such abundance in litter 

 and manure ; and there is, therefore, no difficulty in understanding why in 

 dirty stables infection so readily occurs. The infective agents may be of 

 very varying kinds, a fact which explains the difference in the symptoms 

 which follow umbilical infection ; although ovoid bacteria, streptococcus 

 pyogenes, and the bacilli of necrosis seem most common. 



Omphalitis and omphalo-phlebitis are not the only diseases capable 

 of producing infectious rheumatism in young animals. Certain infections 

 resembling dysentery and diarrhceic enteritis are also its frequent 

 forerunners. In young animals even rachitis, which is accompanied 

 by various digestive disorders, may serve as the point of origin for 

 infectious rheumatism and all its complications. 



In older animals — i.e., in animals from five to six months, or even twelve 

 to fifteen months — infectious rheumatism may occur without a clearly 

 defined cause. It then develops with the symptoms and lesions of that 

 condition known as " osteomyelitis of adolescence " in human pathology. 

 These forms of osteomyelitis are due to infection with streptococci 

 and staphylococci. In veterinary medicine the pathogeny has not yet 

 been accurately ascertained. 



Symptoms. Infectious rheumatism in young animals assumes one 

 of two clinical appearances, possibly due to different causes, viz. — plastic 

 or suppurative arthritis following umbilical infection, and simple 

 exudative arthritis. In the former variety symptoms appear soon after 

 birth, rarely after the age of two months, and as an exception in animals 

 of six to eight months affected with rachitis. The onset is sometimes 

 sudden ; the patient, though healthy on the previous evening, is un- 

 able next morning to rise or move. Hence in France this disease has 

 received the titles, amongst others, of laminitis and paralysis of the 

 newly born. 



