Hereditary Diseases of Horses. 



123 



rated, by neglect of cleanliness, and of this there is ample evi- 

 dence in the fact, that it is most common in foul and badly 

 managed stables, and where no pains are taken to keep the horses' 

 feet and legs clean and dry. 



Inflammation is of two sorts, common and specific. These 

 differ from each other in their s^Tnptoms, their progress, and 

 their termination. Common inflammation is accompanied by 

 effusion of lymph and suppuration, has usually a particular seat 

 or locality, is tolerably regular in its course, and tends to a 

 healthy termination : none are exempt from its attacks, and it is 

 seldom hereditary. It is exemplified in the healing of wounds, 

 and in the so-called phlegmasae, as pneumonia and pleurisy. 

 Special or specific inflammation, on the other hand, has peculiar 

 sjmptoms, is not necessarily localised, but may affect more or 

 less the whole system, is very variable in its course, not easily 

 subdued by remedial measures, and seldom entirely cured ; not 

 easily produced in healthy subjects by extraneous causes, but 

 producible by inoculation, occurring in animals of certain con- 

 stitution, and owing its development in great part to hereditary 

 predisposition. There are three subdivisions of specific in- 

 flammation — the rheumatic, occuiTing in the various sorts of 

 rheumatism, and nearly allied to it, the gouty, which, however, 

 is peculiar to man ; the scrofulous or stmmous, occuning in 

 pulmonary consumption ; and the syphylitic, also peculiar to 

 man, but occurring in the horse in the form of glanders. In 

 the horse the two latter diatheses are more intimately connected 

 than in man, and often concur. 



Wieumatism is neither so common, nor are its symptoms so 

 well marked, in horses as in cattle. When, however, it does 

 occur in the horse, it manifests the same well-known appear- 

 ances which characterise it in all animals. It affects the fibrous 

 tissues of joints, the coverings of muscles, tendons, and liga- 

 ments, and the valves about the heart and larger vessels, and 

 manifests a peculiar tendency to shift from one pait of the body 

 to another, often affecting in succession all the larger joints, at 

 one time chiefly located in the neck, and at another in the back 

 and loins, while in many of its more acute attacks it appears to 

 involve almost every portion of fibrous and fibro-serous tissue 

 throughout the body. In all its varied types it exhibits a full, 

 strong, hard, and unyielding pulse, caused by the inflammation 

 involving the serous and fibro-serous tissues of the heart and 

 circulating vessels. During its existence various excrementitious 

 matters accumulate in the blood, and its fibrinous constituents 

 are found to exceed their normal proportions, as indicated by the 

 production of the buffy coat on the blood. In severe or badly- 

 treated cases the inflcimmation is very apt to be transferred from 



