THE DISEASES OF CATTLE. 273 



undue exposure, and then we have a remedy against the devel- 

 opment of hereditary rheumatism. 



Cattle, calves, and horses sometimes suffer from rheumatic 

 inflammation in the fibrous sheathinsf envelopes of the mus- 

 cles of the neck, constituting what is popularly known as the 

 chords. When thus affected, the animal is very stiff, remains as 

 much as possible in one position, and is unwilling to bend his neck 

 either one way or the other, or to elevate or depress his head. 

 There is always more or less fever, with a strong, full pulse. 

 Sometimes, as in lumbago in the human subject (this is only 

 another name for rheumatism), it affects the muscles of the 

 back and loins, causing stiffness, tenderness, and pain, which 

 are especially evinced on moving or turning the animal. These 

 rheumatic affections are very readily produced in predisposed 

 subjects, by exposure to rain and cold, especially when accom- 

 panied by overheating or exhaustion. 



" Rheumatism sometimes occurs in horses and cattle, as a 

 prominent symptom of that epizootic affection which usually 

 receives the much-abused title of influenza. In such cases, the 

 rheumatism is of a somewhat more subacute or chronic char- 

 acter than common, and is accompanied by that low, debilitat- 

 ing fever so often the concomitant of epizootic maladies. It 

 usually affects all parts of the body susceptible of the rheumatic 

 inflammation, is attended particularly by those symptoms which 

 indicate disease of the heart and pericardium, as an intermit- 

 tent pulse, etc., and often terminates fatally by effusions into 

 the pleura or pericardium, thus causing death by arresting the 

 motions of the heart." 



The reader has now before him some of the most important 

 features of acute rheumatism, and I shall now allude to the 

 treatment. 



The remedies used by different practitioners are : — col- 

 chicum, calomel, opium, Dover powder, tartar emetic, cimicfuga, 

 racemosa, hellebore, aconite, iodine, nitrate of potassa, acetate 

 of ammonia. Each article has its advocates, and at certain 

 stages is indicated. I have great faith in colchicum, yet have 

 often succeeded in producing a favorable termination in the 



