RHEUMATISM. 293 



that is, whatever part of the body becomes rheumatic, eitlier 

 an active rheumatic inflammation will be found to exist in the 

 bowels also, or they will be attacked with a painful torpor : 

 and, in either case, costiveness will be commonly present. 

 The most usual form of this complaint is one which is very 

 similar to the human lumbag-o. In this case a dog- is, in ge- 

 neral, seized with a partial or total loss of the use of his 

 hind leg-s ; his back, particularly about the loins, appears 

 tender and painful to the touch. He screams on being 

 moved ; his belly is hot to the touch ; his bowels are costive, 

 and appear tender and painful. The nose is hot also, the 

 mouth dry, and the pulse considerably increased in frequency. 

 Sometimes the paralysis is not confined wholly to the hinder 

 leg-s, but the fore legs are partly, or completely, paralysed, 

 and helpless also. It seldom attacks the smaller joints, but 

 confines itself to the trunk and upper portions of the extre- 

 mities : neither does it wander, as the human rheumatism, 

 from place to place, but usually remains where it first at- 

 tacked. 



A certain prognostic of the termination of this acute type of 

 the complaint is very difficult to form ; for, in some cases, the 

 limbs recover themselves very speedily, in others more 

 slowly: while, in other instances, the paralysis remains 

 through life, and, when confined to the hinder extremities, 

 the animal drags them after him as long as he lives, or gets 

 the habit of carrying them completely from the ground by 

 the strength of his fore quarters. When the paralysis is 

 universal, the chance of perfect recovery is less than when it 

 is partial ; though, from this also, dogs do now and then re- 

 cover by active and judicious medical treatment. It is to be 

 remarked, however, that after the recovery appears in other 

 respects complete, a considerable weakness sometimes re- 

 mains in the loins and extremities: but more particularly it 

 may be regarded as a rule from which there are few devia- 

 tions, that, when a dog has once had rheumatism, he will be 

 pecuharly liable to it again on the access of cold. 



There is another variety of rheumatism that seems to be com- 



