66 THE FARM DOCTOR. 



rarely results in suppuration, and shows a great tendency to 

 implicate fatally the valves and other fibrous structures of the 

 heart. Besides the constitutional predisposition, it owes its 

 development to accessory causes, such as cold and wet, cold 

 draughts, and disorders, especially those of the digestive or 

 respiratory organs, which load the blood with abnormal and 

 probably acid elements. 



Symptoms. — Aaite Form. — Dullness, languor, or indisposition 

 to move is followed by extreme lameness in one or more limbs, 

 and heat, swelling, and tenderness of a joint, tendon, or group of 

 muscles. If this tenderness moves from joint to joint or muscle 

 to muscle it is very characteristic. The swelling is at first soft 

 and afterwards hard and resistant ; it may fluctuate from excess 

 of synovia in a joint, but rarely from the formation of matter. 

 With the onset of the inflammation comes active fever, with full, 

 hard pulse, increased temperature, hot, clammy mouth, dry 

 muzzle, hurried breathing, costiveness, and scanty, high-coloured 

 urine, sometimes with a neutral or even acid reaction. Cattle 

 often remain down and refuse to rise. If the disease extends to 

 the heart, the pulse has a sharp, often intermittent or irregular 

 beat, and one or other of the heart sounds may be accompanied 

 by a hissing or sighing murmur. {See Diseases of the Heart.) 



Chronic Form. — This resembles the acute, excepting that it is 

 less severe, usually unattended by fever, and may even appear 

 only on exposure, and disappear in the warm sunshine. It is 

 liable to induce fibrous and even bony enlargements, and in 

 cattle suppuration, especially about the joints, and in such cases 

 the disease is more stable and less inclined to shift from place 

 to place. 



Treatment. — Give a laxative (horse, aloes ; ox or sheep, 

 Epsom salts ; pig or dog, castor oil), with anodynes (opium) if 

 pain is extreme, and follow up with alkalies (bicarbonate of 

 potassa or soda ; acetate of potassa or ammonia ; cream of 

 tartar), and diuretics (colchicum, muriate of ammonia, nitrate 



