532 SCOTTISH METROPOLITAN VETERINARY MEDICAL SOCIETY. 
Although not ignoring the fact that both the rheumatic and scrofulous 
diathesis may in cases act as sources from whence spring the varied 
phenomena presented during the development of certain forms of 
arthritic disease. Nor yet, that umbilical thrombosis and disseminated 
abscesses are very generally accompanying features of the most virulent 
and largely-distributed outbreaks of this malady. I am, nevertheless 
rather inclined to the belief that there seems evidence sufficient to con¬ 
vince me that these conditions of structural changes in connection with 
the articulations, that the omphalo thrombo phlebitis and general pycemic 
condition may be most satisfactorily regarded as simply the outcome or 
development of a condition of foetal malnutrition. The causes, whatever 
these may be, are ante not post parturient; they must be looked for not 
as operating on the young animal after birth, but as those which influence 
its development during intra-uterine life. Inflammation of the umbi¬ 
licus and umbilical vessels is undoubtedly a very prominent and early 
feature in all serious outbreaks of the disease. But this condition of 
these parts of the circulatory apparatus in these young creatures, foals, 
calves and lambs, I most strenuously mention is not solely or chiefly the 
result of inoculation with filth or septic matter through medium and 
because of the open umbilicus. During intra-uterine life we have the 
condition of purulent omphalo-phlebitis and particular and general throm¬ 
bosis with disseminated abscesses. 
The animals are born with omphalo-phlebitis well developed, and how 
can any amount of care—which the genuine pathologist so much insists 
U p 0n _bestowed on the navel of the newly-born domesticated animal, or 
any sanitary conditions, prevent a condition of matters which already 
exists ? 
Ao-ain, it is contended by those who object to its dietetic origin, that 
the strono- as well as the weak are sufferers, and that it appears indepen¬ 
dent of the nature of the food of the parents. 
I am satisfied that it will appear in stocks on almost every variety of 
food. It is not the particular kind of food so much as its modes of 
administration, or the manner in which the animals are fed in relation to 
other circumstances and conditions. If you carefully analyse the different 
outbreaks with which you may be familiar, you will find that this arthritic 
disease seems to appear as the sequel to every or any condition and 
combination of conditions whicli tend to the production of animal tissues 
and elemental structures imperfectly elaborated or developed. 
The more I consider the matter, and the more I have to advise 
regardin'* the rearing of our young animals, 'the more am I convinced 
that the "best of our stock animals, male and female, particularly the 
former, in these varieties of the several classes which, by general consent, 
are regarded as the most highly developed and improved, are in much 
pertaining to their constitutional vigour as well as powers of procreation 
o-reatly impaired, and in many instances irreparably damaged, by the 
system of dietary to which they are subjected in order that they may 
make a good appearance in the show-yard. No, Mr. Chairman and 
gentlemen, the pampering and forcing, the unnatural stimulation so 
much in fashion will give us fat animals, but certainly it is not calculated 
to give us the most healthy and well-developed animals, capable of 
transmitting to their progeny, in the highest degree of perfection, those 
qualities for which the variety may be particularly admired. It is a 
common remark by some skilled observers when admiring in the show- 
yard our over-fed stock animals, that they seem very soft. This is 
critically and scientifically correct to an extent that they who make it 
little imagine, for not only are the tissues of these animals marked by a 
