508 GENERAL DISEASES. 



Rheumatism. 



The term, rheumatism, is applied to local inflammatory attacks 

 which show a tendency to shift their position from one part to 

 another. Acute rheumatism is a high fever accompanied by intense 

 pain from the slightest movement, which is well marked in man; 

 but it is, I think, never seen in the horse. In man there is also a 

 form of rheumatism which affects the muscles, tendons, ligaments, 

 and joints; but in which symptoms of fever are either wanting, or 

 only slightly developed. It runs a more or less chronic course, 

 and is usually located in or near joints, and, as a rule, manifests 

 its presence by the feeling of pain, only when the affected parts 

 are put into motion, or are subjected to pressure. I have never 

 seen in the horse any affection which bore the faintest resemblance 

 to the rheumatism of man. Other observers state that they have 

 witnessed undoubted cases in the horse, of the second form of 

 rheumatism. Such very rare instances were characterised by 

 shifting lameness, or by inflammatory swellings which appeared 

 suddenly in tendons, ligaments, or joints, and showed a migratory 

 tendency : for instance, after the attack had kept the back tendons 

 of a fore leg in a swollen and painful condition for a few days, it 

 would manifest itself by an inflamed state of one of the hocks. 



Acute rheumatism in man appears to be an infective disease. Sir Thomas ■ 

 Barlow {" The Lancet," 2nd August, 1902) tells us that " the recent re- 

 searches of Dr. F. J. Poynton and Dr. A. Paine seem to have established 

 the existence of a specific diplococcus in the blood, in the valves of the 

 heart, in the pericardial exudation, in the joints, and in the subcutaneous 

 nodules of acute rheumatism. From pure cultures of this organism in- 

 travenous inoculations in rabbits have been followed by clinical manifesta- 

 tions and by non-suppurative lesions similar to those with which we are 

 familiar in acute rheumatism." In the chronic rheumatism of man, gout 

 appears to play an important part. Gout is caused by the deposition of 

 sodium biurate in various tissues, in which its presence gives rise to 

 irritation, interference with movement, and alteration "of structure, especially 

 in joints, where its existence is made more or less manifest by the formation 

 of " chalk stones." In these cases, uric acid, on entering the blood, com- 

 bines with the sodium of that fluid. • The resulting sodium biurate has a 

 strong tendency to become precipitated. Hence its removal is the best 

 treatment. Dr. Arthur P. Luff in his " Pathology and Treatment of Gout," 

 has shown that the mineral matter of green vegetables increases the 

 solubility of sodium biurate and thus aids its elimination from the system ; 

 and that the mineral matter of grain and meat has not this beneficial 

 property (p. 189). The correctness of this statement has been amply proved 

 in practice. 



Hence, if a horse has a gouty tendency, which rriight be mani- 

 fested by rheumatic symptoms, feed him, as far as practicable, on 

 gra,as, either in its green state, or in its dried form (hay) ; angl 



