LTMPHITI3. 411 



commencement will not be noticed by any save a careful obser- 

 ver. Generally the attack is very sudden ; the owner or the 

 servant may go now, as it were, out of the stable, and leave his 

 horse to all appearance perfectly well, and upon returning in 

 an hour hence he will find him standing upon three legs, while 

 the fourth will be flexed and held high from the ground ; the 

 pulse will vary in its beats according to the intensity of the 

 attack, rarely, however, beating less than fifty, or more than 

 one hundred per minute ; while the respirations may be fifteen 

 or twenty, or even forty, in the same interval of time. If the 

 aff'ected limb be examined, especially upon its internal surface, 

 it will be found hot, swollen, and acutely tender, which symp- 

 toms for many hours may gradually increase in intensity. 



Soon after the commencement of the disease, a number of 

 vessels may be seen running across the limb in various direc- 

 tions, of about the thickness of a quill ; they are most numerous, 

 however, upon the inner surface of the leg, where they terminate 

 in round or irregular formed masses, which masses are acutely 

 tender if squeezed : these prominent vessels are the inflamed 

 lymphatics, and the prominent masses alluded to are the inflamed 

 lymphatic glands. Sometimes the swelling extends from the 

 junction of the limb with the body down to the very foot; at 

 other times it only reaches down to the hock, and when very 

 severe a sort of sweat exudes from the skin and lies upon the 

 hair. 



The coarser the breed, and the older the animal, the greater 

 the liability to Lymphitis. Young coarse bred horses are also 

 prone to it, particularly if highly fed and under worked ; but 

 in the young horse the disease, in the majority of cases, if not 

 in all, quickly runs its course, and the afiected limb becomes in 

 time perfectly restored to its pristine condition, and if due 

 precaution be taken the malady may not again manifest itself, 



