ARTHRITIS. 249 



term " joint ill;" we are of opinion that it is of scrofulous origin, 

 and due in no small degree to improper crossing of mares with 

 horses, either the sire or the dam being the subject of some dis- 

 ease which interferes wath their capability to reproduce healthy 

 progeny; some attribute its development to improper systems of 

 management or to giving the mare food deficient in those nutrient 

 qualities which the requirements of the foal demand; while yet 

 again it is considered that the milk of the dam is lacking in the 

 proper proportion of mineral salts. Our own opinion is that each 

 of these views has some bearing upon the condition known as 

 arthritis, but that probably the digestive organs of the foal are 

 more responsible than aught else for the disease in consequence of 

 which the food is not thoroughly assimilated, and while the nec- 

 essary constituents may be, and probably are, present in the food 

 a large proportion of these pass through the system of the foal 

 without being appropriated as they should be; the principal 

 tissue in the body of the foal to feel the effect of this resulting 

 deficiency is the bone, and the epipheses or large ends of the 

 bones of the legs, which together help to form the joints, not hav- 

 ing the necessary amount of the mineral elements deposited in 

 them become the seat of a disease which produces so much incon- 

 venience and pain, and not infrequently results in consequences 

 sufficiently important to influence the general constitution; in 

 Homoeopathy we have one remedy which has proved eminently 

 satisfactory in overcoming this diseased condition and also its 

 ■various complications; moreover, if it is given in the earlier 

 developmental period, the more serious complications need not be 

 anticipated; the earlier symptoms are swelling and heat of the 

 joints, particularly those of the fetlocks, which on manipulation 

 will be found exceptionally painful and tender to the touch and 

 productive of considerable lameness; if the general constitutional 

 symptoms give evidence of high fever a few doses of Aconite 3X 

 ten drops may be administered with advantage, thereafter to be 

 followed for some weeks by five-grain doses of Calcarea phos- 

 phorica 6x night and morning, and unless the arthritis becomes 

 complicated by the development of abscesses around the joints 

 and among the tendons this remedy should complete the cure, but 

 in the event of such complications five grains oi Silicea i2x three 

 times a day must be substituted. 



