20 HEALTH AND DISEASE 



8. CONSTITUTIONAL DISEASES 



RHEUMATISM 



Definition. Rheumatism is a specific constitutional disease, sometimes 

 assuming an acute febrile character. It is specially marked by local mani- 

 festations of pain of varying degrees of intensity, with a tendency to shift 

 from place to place, and to recur periodically. Horses of all ages are 

 liable to it, but it is most prevalent in the aged. 



Causes. Heredity is undoubtedly a factor in the causation of 

 rheumatism, and, as in gout, the disease would appear to be due to some 

 incomplete elaboration of the nutrient elements of the food, whereby 

 a rheumatic poison is generated in the body and brought into activity 

 by certain extraneous causes. Among these may be mentioned unsanitary 

 surroundings, cold, damp, and vitiated stables, and damaged fodder. Any 

 condition tending to reduce an animal's vitality or bring him below 

 " par" increases his susceptibility to attack. Seasonal influences, as ex- 

 posure to the biting east winds of spring and autumn, are often account- 

 able for attacks of this disease in susceptible subjects. Horses brought 

 from a hot stable and then, while heated, compelled to stand without 

 clothing, exposed to wet and cold, readily contract the disease. Animals 

 subjected to habitual exposure, but without those sudden alternations 

 from the warmth of the stable to the draughty street corner, are much 

 less liable to contract the disease than the animals living in hot stuffy 

 stables. 



Rheumatism in its acute febrile form not infrequently complicates an 

 attack of influenza, strangles, or pneumonia, or follows upon it in the 

 course of convalescence. 



Symptoms. Rheumatism may present itself as an acute fever with 

 manifestations of local pain, or it may assume a chronic and less severe 

 character. 



In the former case the animal shows marked indications of consti- 

 tutional disturbance, notably a high temperature, quick pulse, increased 

 breathing, hot skin, injected eyes, inappetence, and constipation of the 

 bowels. Locally, the disease may centre itself in one or another of the 

 joints of the extremities, or in the tendons and ligaments of the limbs, 

 or in the muscles. Whichever structure is involved, the part becomes 

 more or less swollen, hot, and intensely painful, so much so that the up- 

 right posture is maintained with difficulty, and only at the expense of 

 considerable suffering. The disease may be confined to one extremity 



