CHRONIC EHEUMATISM. 23 



CHRONIC RHEUMATISM. 



This generally receives a specific name according to the part attacked. Thus, 

 if it seizes on the muscles of the chest or shoulders, it is called 



KENNEL LAMENESS, OR CHEST-FOUNDER, which is the great bugbear of the 

 foxhound kennel, and is produced in these animals from cold, after the extraordinary 

 fatigues which they undergo. When a hound is worn down by long-continued 

 exhaustion, and is then placed to lie in a damp or cold kennel, he is almost sure to 

 contract rheumatism, especially if he is fed upon stimulating food, which most 

 hounds are, in order to enable them to bear their labours. Thus, over- work and no 

 work at all alike engender the disease, but in a very opposite state ; the former 

 producing an active fever of a rheumatic character, whilst the latter brings on a 

 more chronic and low kind, attended with great muscular stiffness, but not with 

 high fever. 



PARALYSIS, or loss of power in the hinder extremities (improperly so called), 

 is another result of the low kind of rheumatic fever which comes on from long- 

 continued high feeding followed by cold ; and it is exactly of the same character as 

 chest-founder, but confined to the hinder limbs instead of the shoulders. I have 

 said that it is improperly called paralysis, and my reason for this is, that it is not at 

 all analogous to other forms of paralysis, though there is temporary loss of power ; 

 but so there is in all rheumatic conditions ; yet who would say that the poor 

 rheumatic subject, who can neither move hand nor foot, is suffering from paralysis. 

 Assuredly no one who understands the nomenclature of disease, because the essence 

 of paralysis is considered to be loss of power from disease in the nervous system ; 

 hence, when the loss is dependant upon want of tone in the muscles affected, it is 

 clearly a misnomer to apply the term paralysis. 



The treatment of these local affections is often attended with little or no 

 advantage, but the following somewhat empirical remedy has been found to be 

 successful in many cases. At all events I know no more reliable remedy. It is called 

 the red herring recipe, and is as follows : Score a red herring with a knife and well 

 rub in two drachms of nitre ; give every morning on an empty stomach, and keep 

 the dog without food for two hours after ; at night give a drachm of camphor made 

 into a ball. The herring may be mixed with a little broth and meal if he will not 

 eat it otherwise. Trimethylaniine, which is obtained from a similar source, has 

 been recommended by Dr Richardson as superior to the red herring. The dose is 

 from 5 to 15 drops given in milk. 



