268 KENNEL DISEASES. 
CHAPTER IV. 
RHEUMATISM. 
RuEuMaTIsM is a disease which manifests itself in two distinct forms, namely, 
the acute and chronic. 
The first is characterized by fever; and its chief local manifestation is an 
inflammation of the joints. Its exact nature is unknown, though it is probably 
of microbic origin. Indeed in a very large number of cases under bacteriological 
study one observer has been able to isolate a peculiar bacillus to which he 
ascribes causative influence. He has further been able to transmit this organism 
to lower animals and induce symptoms and conditions in them comparable to 
those observed in man; and again to obtain from these subjects that same 
peculiar, specific bacillus. 
Chronic rheumatism is a non-inflammatory affection which develops slowly 
and gradually. While it usually attacks the joints, it may be limited to the 
muscles; or both joints and muscles may be involved. 
The acute form, commonly termed rheumatic fever, is but rarely experienced 
by dogs; nor are they often victims of the chronic joint affection; but they 
quite frequently suffer from attacks of so-called myalgia, in which the muscles 
and structures to which they are attached mainly suffer, although there is often 
more or less stiffness of adjacent joints. 
Such attacks are not invariably of very slow and gradual formation. Now 
and then they assume a somewhat acute form; and in occasional instances they 
are attended by fever, but the same is rarely pronounced, the temperature 
seldom rising higher than one or two degrees above the normal. 
They have been thought to be due to an attenuated form of the virus of 
acute articular rheumatism, notwithstanding in nearly all cases they seem to be 
the results of exposure to cold, damp, or strong draughts, especially after hard 
exercise, warm baths, during free perspiration, etc. 
There is good reason for the belief, however, that the so-called subacute and 
chronic rheumatisms are not at all rheumatic in nature, and that no etiological 
relation exists between them and acute rheumatism. 
In most victims there doubtless exists a constitutional predisposition or 
tendency to rheumatism, which there is reason for believing is in great measure 
the consequence of accumulation within the system of certain waste materials 
which should have been expelled through the avenues designed for such, as the 
