336 THE MANAGEMENT AND DISEASES OF THE DOG. 



not unfrequently affected with cramp. The same condition 

 sometimes follows swimming, particularly in cold seasons of 

 the year. The symptoms, though in some respects not unlike 

 those of rheumatism, differ from them in the rapidity with 

 which they pass off when warmth and free circulation to the 

 part is restored. The hind-parts are those generally affected. 

 The treatment consists in brisk exercise, and friction to the 

 part. 



DISEASES OF THE HEART. 



Diseases of the heart are not very frequently met with in 

 canine practice, except as the result of complications of other 

 maladies. 



Fatty degeneration is, perhaps, the most common»form met 

 with ; several instances of this I have seen when making 

 post-mortem examinations of animals. 



" In examining a heart thus diseased, the eye first notices 

 the fainter tracing, or the utter absence, of those transverse 

 marks which cross the fibres of all the voluntary muscles, and 

 less distinctly those of the involuntary muscle, the heart. In 

 an early stage of the disease these cross lines are dimly seen^ 

 and the fibre is studded here and there with small dark 

 pomts. When the disease is more decidedly expressed the 

 dots are more numerous, and the striae disappear. These dots 

 are little globules of oil ; lying within the sheath of the fibre 

 they make it soft and friable. 



" The parts of the heart which have undergone this change 

 are altered in color as well as in consistence. They are pale^ 

 like a faded leaf, or of a yellowish-brown, or a muddy pink 

 color, and they commonly have a spotty or mottled appear- 

 ance. The change of texture varies in degree and in extent. 

 It may render the muscle merely soft and flabby, or it may 

 reduce it to a state in which it feels like a wet kid glove, and 

 can be torn as readily as wet brown paper. Every chamber 



