KHEUMATIC FEVER OE- ACUTE EHEUMATISM. 79 



upon the part first attacked. If the treatment adopted is suffi- 

 ciently prompt, these symptoms disappear in a few days, leaving 

 nothing but temporary weakness behind ; but if the animal is 

 neglected, the inflammation of the muscles goes to such an extent 

 as to destroy their power, and the dog is incapable of using 

 them. In this state he is said to have palsy of the hind-legs, 

 though I think erroneously. True palsy is a loss of power owing 

 to a disease of some portion of the nervous system supplying the 

 part affected, whereas I believe that the loss of power following 

 rheumatism is seated in the muscle itself, and has nothing to do 

 with the nervous system. Palsy will arise sometimes from 

 rheumatic inflammation of the spinal marrow, but very rarely 

 indeed except as a consequence of an accident, and when it does 

 come on, it is almost sure to last many weeks, if not during the 

 whole life of the dog. But the spurious palsy following rheu- 

 matism, if properly treated, often disappears in a week or ten days, 

 and, unlike true palsy, may almost always be, in a great measure, 

 dispelled for the time being, by any stimulus which is sufficient to 

 frighten the animal out of his propriety, such as the whip. One 

 form of chest-founder is an instance of this spurious palsy, and is 

 nothing more than the consequence of inflammation of the broad 

 flat muscle which slings the dog between the two shoulder-blades. 

 It is, however, more commonly the result of chronic inflammation 

 of the same muscle, which I shall describe under the proper head. 

 TREATMENT. Whenever a dog is seized with the above symptoms 

 to any severe degree, and the pulse will bear depletion, I should 

 advise the loss of a few ounces of blood from the neck vein. I 



