468 



HEALTH AND DISEASE 



heart and round the base, and in the grooves in the walls of the organ, 

 along which the blood-vessels pass. In connection with this deposit of fat 

 the muscular structure becomes pale and flabby. 



Symptoms. Fatty infiltration is found to exist in the case of animals 

 which spend an idle life or do very little work, and are supplied with an 

 undue quantity of food. Such animals are usually referred to by stable- 

 men as being in soft condition, and it is recognized in reference to them 

 that they are incapable of active work, rapidly becoming exhausted and 

 suffering from shortness of breath and palpitation of the heart on slight 

 exertion. The circulation is necessarily weak and languid, the extremities 



are cold, and an examination of the 

 heart would reveal the characteristic 

 symptoms of feeble impulse and much- 

 diminished intensity in the normal 

 sounds; when the deposit of fat is ex- 

 cessive, it may happen that no sound 

 can be detected at all. The condi- 

 tion is modified by the circumstances 

 under which the fatty infiltration 

 takes place. In horses which have 

 been fed to be brought into what is 

 known as dealer's condition, a process 

 which has probably only occupied a 

 few weeks, regular exercise and change 

 in the character of the food will, in 

 the majority of cases, restore the animal 

 to a healthy condition. It is only after the excessive feeding, with in- 

 sufficient exertion, have been continued for a long period that the diseased 

 state is likely to become permanent, and even in such cases considerable 

 improvement in the animal's condition may be effected by persistent 

 employment of the ordinary measures, which would come under the head 

 of physical training, including carefully-regulated exercise, the avoidance 

 of food containing a large proportion of fattening material, and the careful 

 adjustment of the food given to the quantity of work performed. 



Fatty Degeneration. This condition of the heart may be associated 

 with long-continued fatty infiltration, or it may follow an attack of inflam- 

 mation (Myocarditis), or arise in the course of some wasting disease, or 

 as a result of one or another of the acute specific fevers. It is mostly 

 found to exist in old animals, and the progress of the malady is consider- 

 ably favoured by a sedentary life; in fact it may occur in an exaggerated 

 form in animals which are not plethoric, although it appears that want 



Fig. 194. Fatty Infiltration of Muscle 

 Muscle Fibres (healthy). 2 Fat Corpuscles. 



