308 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 



tissues to the surface, is discliarged and leaves an open 

 joint, wHcli soon determines a further increase of the 

 inflammation and destructive changes. In tuberculous 

 diseases of the joints there is the softening and enlarge- 

 ment of the ends of the bones, a gelatiniform exudation, 

 and its cheesy degeneration ; in rheumatism there is httJe 

 tendency to suppuration ; in glanders, farcy, plugging of 

 vessels, etc., there is the specific deposit or an early sup- 

 puration. 



Ge7ieral Symptoms. The joint is swollen, tense and 

 elastic, is kept partially bent, is hot and tender, the parts 

 around it may retain the indentation made by the finger, 

 and the suffering is greatly increased when the joint is 

 moved. There are all grades from heat, tenderness, swell- 

 ing and habitual flexion of the joints, with the capacity of 

 working off the lameness during exercise, to severe forms 

 in which no weight can be thrown upon the hmb, and the 

 attendant fever is so intense that appetite is gone, thirst is 

 ardent, breathing and pulse greatly accelerated, the heat 

 of the body raised to a high point and the patient may 

 die from the constitutional excitement. 



When suppuration takes place there is an aggravation 

 of aU the symptoms, with frequent shiveriag, and the 

 gradual absorption of the soft parts renders the fluctuation 

 more and more evident up to the period of rupture, Pre- 

 ceding stiff-joint there is a long period of subacute inflam- 

 mation, the joint being kept immovable by the pain and 

 the abundant exudation, until ossification ensues. 



Tuberculous disease of the joints occurs in young ani- 

 mals, the offspring of consumptive families, and is marked 

 by the enlargement and softening of the ends of the bones, 

 the formation of wounds or ulcers, and, it may be, disease 

 of the lungs or bowels. 



Eheumaticjdisease is characterized by its tendency to 

 move from joint to joint or muscle, by its aggravation 

 under the influence of cold and damp and improvement 

 under warmth and sunshine, and by its indisposition to 



