270 DISEASES OF BONE. 



found for this case, which ran a chronic course of some months 

 before slaughter. There was gradual and well-marked wasting of 

 the muscles of the croup and thigh of the affected side. Post- 

 mortem examination showed an inflamed condition of the stifle 

 joint, which contained a large amount of orange-coloured synovia. 

 Its synovial membrane was orange^coloured, thickened, and covered 

 with wart-like growths. The articular cartilages were partly 

 worn away, and gave almost unmistakable evidence of rheumatoid 

 arthritis. An apparently identical case in the near hind leg is 

 described by Moller, who terms the disease gonitis chronica sicca. 



I have no reason for supposing that this disease of the stifle 

 differed from that of the hock except that it ran a more acute 

 course. I would therefore be inclined to class them both under 

 the one heading of rheumatoid arthritis. 



(3.) An inflammation of the joints of the limbs of foals, without 

 formation of pus, and probably connected with navel-ill (p. 516). 

 In the two or three cases I have seen, the animals were from three 

 to five months old. The first symptom noticed was decrease in 

 power of movement from one place to another, and fatigue from 

 comparatively slight exertion. There was gradual swelling of the 

 joints, chiefly of the hock, stifle, knee and fetlock^ and also swell- 

 ing of the front of the cannon bones. The animals knuckled over 

 more and more on all four legs until they were unable to walk, 

 and could stand only with difiiculty, so that they had to be de- 

 stroyed. During the course of the disease, which lasted for about 

 two months, they remained in good condition, their general health 

 was apparently unimpaired, and the inflamed joints were not pain- 

 ful to the touch. The affected joints, by post-mortem examination, 

 showed all the signs of rheumatoid arthritis, including the ivory- 

 like deposit on the denuded ends of the bones. The age of the 

 sufferers, the rapid progress of the disease, and its general attack 

 on the joints of all four limbs, point to infection as the cause, and 

 justify the separation of this disease from the rheumatoid arthritis 

 of adult and old horses, which form of inflammation has a close 

 connection with injury or at least hard work. In these foal cases, 

 the inflammation was persistent, and did not show any tendency to 

 shift from one joint to another, which is a peculiarity of the 

 inflammation of true rheumatism. 



TREATMENT appears to be of no avail. A horse slightly 

 affected should be put only to light labour. In the stable, he 

 should be induced to lie down as much as possible. 



