722 
E. DIGGS. 
I have seen no new works or ideas on the disease, either 
in books or in our veterinary journals. 
Rheumatism is an acute febrile disease, caused by certain 
obscure climatic and diathetic influences, and characterized 
by pyrexia, sweats and acute shifting inflammation of the 
joints and other structures. 
Of the predisposing causes of acute rheumatism, the most 
important is inheritance, which can be traced in 27 per cent, 
of all cases. Previous attacks increase the liabilitv of a re¬ 
turn of the disease, but there is a limit to predisposition from 
this cause after several recurrences. 
Climate seems to be a great factor in the production of 
rheumatism. It is at present a very common result of 
catarrhal fever, and also as a complication. One of the most 
common causes is exposure to cold and wet, or in other words 
the disease Seems to have an immediate etiological relation to 
weather, season and climate. It may make its appearance 
after a sprain or injury to a joint. 
The post-mortem appearances in acute rheumatism are— 
on opening an affected joint, we find moderate hyperaemia— 
with occasional ecchymosis of the synovial membrane and 
fibrous tissues connected with the articulation, a somewhat 
opaque, granular, swollen appearance of the synovial surface, 
and a considerable amount of inflammatory effusion, generally 
thin, clear, alkaline and albuminous. 
The cartilages are sometimes inflamed, the tendons and 
their sheaths are frequently congested at the seat of the effu¬ 
sion. When death is produced by rheumatism, there must be 
some complicating intercurrent disease or injury, and in such 
cases the non-arthritical lesions are necessarily the most im¬ 
portant, such as the lungs, pleura, heart, pericardium, etc. 
When pyrexia has been great, the solid viscera present a 
granular degeneration, and are prone to rapid decomposition, 
and in cases of hyperpyrexia the blood is fluid. 
From chemical analysis of the blood, the liquor sanguinis 
is found to be alkaline ; the fibrin has been said to increase in 
amount about one per cent, the amount of urea is not above 
normal, and neither uric nor lactic acid, nor any other abnor- 
