Lamenesses of Sheep and Lambs. 
389 
inability to use the affected part. One limb may be attacked, 
and for a time remain very painful, but, as in adults, the com- 
plaint is very apt to migrate, attacking now the shoulders, now 
the loins, and sometimes all four legs together. 
Rheumatism appears to depend upon the accumulation in 
the blood of noxious acid matters. These may be generated in 
various ways, but most commonly result from the retention ot 
excrementitious products. Hence any circumstances interfering 
with or arresting the natural processes by which the blood is 
purified — anything checking the functions of the skin, kidneys, 
or bowels, may become a cause of rheumatism. In this way, 
damp cold air, sudden chills, undrained pasturages exert their 
injurious influence. They are especially powerful amongst 
young, delicate, or pampered animals, and in the progeny of 
those that have been subject to the complaint. Such animals 
do not actually inhei'it the disease, but they inherit a strong 
tendency to it, rendering them prone to suffer, from causes which 
would have no injurious influence on animals descended from 
healthy stock. It is along our eastern coasts, on exposed high- 
lands, that rheumatic affections chiefly occur ; but they also 
appear wherever young lambs or delicate house-fed sheep are 
exposed to inclement weather, and particularly to frosts, damp, 
cold, or high winds. Wet and boisterous weather is more 
detrimental to sheep than dry cold, however intense, against 
which the fleecy covering of the sheep is a pretty effectual pro- 
tection. Cold conjoined with wet is, however, exceedingly 
injurious to all animals, and the active cause of many diseases. 
In acute cases of rheumatic lameness constitutional and local 
treatment must be united. Merely local remedies are not alone 
sufficient ; for the appearances which we recognise as the disease 
are but local indications of a general ailment. To effect a radical 
cure we must strike boldly at the root of the evil, and not rest 
contented with the removal of symptoms. Constitutional treat- 
ment is especially indicated when the pulse is full and strong, 
with the presence of other febrile symptoms. In such cases the 
abstraction of blood will be of much service. It may be drawn 
from the jugular, from the large vein on the inside of the thigh, 
or from the vessels on the lower surface of the tail. The blood, 
drawn by a small phleme or lancet, should be allowed to flow 
until the quality of the pulse be amended, until it becomes softer 
and less resisting. Six or eight ounces are generally suflRcient 
to effect this change. Some sedative medicine should then be 
given, such as four or five drops of Fleming's tincture of aconite, 
diluted with water, and repeated every two hours until the febrile 
symptoms cease. As a sedative for the lower animals aconite is 
incomparably the best ; no other medicine quiets the pulse or 
