AMYOTROPHIES, 273 
To keep the bowels open by purgatives is a prescription not to be 
neglected. 
Symptomatic polymyositis, which constitutes a clinical concurrence an- 
alogous to polyneuritis, may occur during some infectious diseases. 
Under the title “Observation of General Inflammation of Muscles,” 
Auboyer reported in 1833 the case of a horse in which, after serious gen- 
eral symptoms, a number of “muscular projections”’ appeared on the 
surface of the body, but the co-existence of swellings of the legs and of 
the head indicates that the case was more one of anasarca than of mus- 
cular phlegmasia. The polymyositis of hemoglobinuria is the much 
more frequent and the better known among animals. 
Some polymyositis, which seems to have no relation with any determined 
disease, is of pyohzemic or septicemic nature. In man it often repre- 
sents a special form of common septicaemia. 
Chronic myositis may follow acute. Sometimes it complicates the 
presence of hydatic cysts, psorosperms or foreign bodies. But in all 
animal species it may be observed without well-known causes. Mller, 
Kitt and Piitz have seen in the horse chronic myositis affecting certain 
groups of muscles (forearm, shoulder, thigh). At the autopsy of a horse 
which had been lame on both hind legs for: several months, Moller found 
achronic fibrous myositis of the croup and thigh muscles. ‘Takarenko has 
seen similar lesions almost generalized in cattle. Like Moller, we have 
observed them in dogs, especially on the masseters. Psorosperms have 
been found in cattle, sheep, calves, swine and horses. 
Chronic myositis ordinarily assumes the jsrous form, and may bring 
on muscular retractions and bony deviations, giving rise to serious dis- 
turbances in the joints. In the horse it is sometimes ossi/ying. Megnin 
and Palat have reported an observation of sclero-cartilaginous trans- 
formation of muscular tissue. Stephenson found the muscle flexors of the 
forearm completely ossified. But “ progressive ossifying myositis” has 
not been mentioned in the case of animals. 
Whether fibrous or ossifying, chronic myositis almost always resisted 
treatment. Locally, blisters and cauterization can be used, and internally 
large doses of iodide of potassium. 
Vv. : 
AMYOTROPHIES. 
Muscular atrophies, which are somewhat frequent in animals, especi- 
ally in horses and dogs, vary greatly in their nature and in their causes. 
In all species we observe more or less marked emaciation, generalized to 
a whole diseased leg, and brought on by inaction or functional insufficiency 
of that leg. We have already spoken of the atrophy of certain muscular 
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