PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 375 
lar attendant phenomena through the left; the whole of which gra¬ 
dually increased in intensity until the 15th, when death closed the 
animal’s sufferings. 
In Case II, the pleuritis and the rheumatism appeared to manifest 
themselves simultaneously; several days before I was called in 
the short grunting sound was observed, along with lameness in the 
left fore leg; while on the 8th (the day previous) the breathing at 
times was disturbed, and the lameness more severe. On the 9th, 
the symptoms generally were heightened, while on the morning of 
the 11th a violent increase was exhibited, with lameness in the 
left hind limb, which was subdued and fortunately eradicated, 
principally, I think, by the copious abstraction of blood. 
The peculiar state of the blood in these cases merits a few ob¬ 
servations, in both, more than three parts of the entire quantity 
abstracted consisted of pure fibrin, with but a very small propor¬ 
tion of serum, accompanied with remarkable firmness of coagulation, 
and a cupped state of the surface. “ The most important fact sub¬ 
stantiated by Andral, is one that had been previously suspected— 
the invariable increase in the quantity of fibrin during acute in¬ 
flammatory affections, the increase being strictly proportional to 
the intensity of the inflammation, and to the degree of symptomatic 
fever accompanying it. . . The augmentation of the quantity 
of fibrin is so certain a sign of inflammation, that, if we find more 
than 5 parts of fibrin in 1000, in the course of any disease, we 
may positively affirm that some local inflammation exists. . . . 
The greatest augmentation is seen in pneumonia and acute rheu¬ 
matism*.” In the Cyclopaedia of Practical Medicine, article Rheu¬ 
matism, vol. iii, the author, Dr. Barlow, appears to strongly hold 
the opinion, that this excess of fibrin is, in many instances, the 
immediate cause of acute rheumatism ; and in support of this view 
he also quotes several passages from Andral, among which I 
select the following :—“ Now, if we mark the symptoms and pro¬ 
gress of acute rheumatism, we find that very often a well-marked 
febrile action, with a strong re-action but without any symptom 
whatever of local affection, precedes the pain. In a word, there is 
first an inflammatory fever, and then rheumatism. Next, observe 
the extreme mobility of the rheumatic pains. They run along, in 
a manner, wherever the blood is distributed; the application of 
leeches often removes the pain from one part, but it soon shifts to 
another, and not unfrequently it quits the articulating tissues, and 
fixes on different internal organs, producing, by the derangement 
of their functions, symptoms more or less severe. It often happens 
that bleeding from a large orifice puts an end to the disease, as if 
* Carpenter’s Principles of Human Physiology.-Andral. 
