ADDENDA TO THE DISEASES OF THE KIDNEYS. S7l 



sion rheumatismal hemoglobinemia may be applied perfectly 

 well to almost all cases that we meet in practice. We are not going 

 so far as to deny the existence of hemoglobinemia either " infec- 

 tious'^ or "toxic'' in the horse, but it is indisputable that examples 

 of it are most rare and are least important. 



The principal cause of hemoglobinemia of the horse is the action 

 of cold. This etiological factor is admitted by the great majority 

 of observers. According to Goring, the disease may be experi- 

 mentally produced by cold. An abnormal sensitiveness to the 

 action of cold is acquired by a rest of several days in a hot, badly 

 ventilated, and damp stable, and the animals are specially predis- 

 posed to the disease if during the time of inactivity they have been 

 given full rations. Hemoglobinemia appears especially after holi- 

 days (Monday disease, Easter disease, Whitsuntide disease). The 

 predisposition is acquired also by forced rest from lameness. The 

 high temperature of the stables acts by rendering the organism less 

 resistant to cold. Observation teaches us that it most frequently 

 affects the best stabled horses, when the stables are warm, rather 

 than those located in defective stables belonging to poor owners. 

 In most cases, indeed, the appearance of the disease may be ex- 

 plained by the hygienic conditions of the stables. Heavy draught 

 horses are particularly exposed to it 



Hemoglobinemia is of myogenic or non-hematogenic origin. The 

 action of cold in the freeing of hemoglobin will be explained briefly. 

 Physiology teaches that nutritive metamorphoses increase in the 

 muscles when the sensitive nerves of the skin are irritated. Every 

 time that intense impressions are felt upon the integument the 

 organic changes become active in the muscular system ; a decompo- 

 sition of organic albumin may result from it — that is to say, of the 

 muscular substance itself. Consecutively to these degenerative 

 alterations of the muscles, the products of transformation, mainly 

 the coloring matter of the muscular fibre, which is identical with 

 hemoglobin, pass into the blood. The effects of the cutaneous irri- 

 tation are especially intense after a long stay in a hot atmosphere. 

 The hind quarters being most exposed and the least protected, and 

 the croup and lumbar muscles being in more active function than 

 any of the others, we can understand that these effects are felt 

 much more upon the hind quarters than upon any other region. 



There are cases where the influence of cold seems to be wanting; 

 they are generally considered as facts establishing the existence of 



