DISEASES OF THE OX AND SHEEP. 367 



influence of witches and wizards, or to some evil spirit or 

 spirits entering or dominating over the individual affected. As 

 knowledsfe spreads, and the mind begins to grasp the true 

 relationship of man with his environment, it is soon perceived 

 that ^ out of the heart proceed evil thoughts and all that doth 

 defile: (Malt. xv. 18).* 



Rheumatism in the ox, of which we have now to speak, is a 

 disease even yet better known by country-folk under the terms 

 felon, chine felon, cold felon, joint felon. The word felon is 

 derived from the root fally connected with fell, " cruel," an 

 epithet applied to one who commits a cruel deed, or a felon, 

 and it is not improbable that in days gone by people thought 

 an ox affected with rheumatism was the victim of some living 

 agent desirous to harm their cattle from spite or revenge, or even 

 in just punishment for misdeeds. In the names of some diseases 

 of man we can trace direct relationship of the popular term with 

 that of the cruel agency to which man in his striving ignorance 

 assigned it. 



The term rheumatism denotes a peculiar kind of inflammation 

 affecting the joints, muscles, or fibrous tissues. It is due to 

 some general morbid condition, and has an especial tendency to 

 migrate from one part of the body to another. Eheumaiism is 

 either of an acute or chronic variety, and in the ox this term is 

 also inclusive of some painful affections of a neuralgic character ; 

 and, indeed, rheumatism and neuralgia are probably very inti- 

 mately connected. Rheumatism or felon in the ox generally comes 

 on after exposure to wet or cold, and the disease is especially 

 common in severe boisterous weather. Vicissitudes of weather, 

 indeed, are the chief exciting causes of rheumatic affections. 

 Cold draughty sheds (in exposed situations) are too frequently 

 answerable for causing them in milch cows. 



It must be pointed out that certain animals especially show a 

 marked predisposition to contracting rheumatic affections, and 

 this, too, is the case with man in the absence of any other cause. 

 This special predisposition is known as the ^^ rheumatic 

 diathesis^ It will be readily understood that bad management 

 of cattle, causing derangements of the digestive and assimilative 

 functions, is a powerful predisposing factor in the causation of 



* " But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the 

 heart ; and they defile the man." 



