280 SCOTTISH METROPOLITAN VETERINARY MEDICAL SOCIETY. 
politan Veterinary Medical Association. In making choice of a subject 
on which to make a few remarks on the occasion of my occupying the 
chair for the first time, and which might be of interest to the members, 
I have fixed upon the disease termed rheumatism. I have been in¬ 
fluenced in choosing this subject from the fact of it having occurred 
more frequently in course of practice, and also because I have had 
rather painful experience of it myself, having suffered from it, both in 
its acute and chronic form, since the beginning of November last. 
The word rheumatism is of Greek derivation, meaning to flow, or a 
fluxion; it belongs to the humeral school of pathology, and is a specific 
constitutional disease, supposed by some to be due to excess of lactic 
acid in the blood. Rheumatism has engaged the attention of many 
eminent men in the medical profession from a very remote period; 
but it is only of comparatively recent date that it has been taken 
notice of by any author in veterinary science ; in fact, it is denied by 
some that it ever exists as a disease among our domestic animals. 
Those veterinary surgeons who have been for any length of time in 
practice without meeting cases of rheumatic disease in all its forms, 
must be very highly favoured. Truly their “lines have fallen in pleasant 
places.” As it is one of those diseases upon which climatic changes 
exerts a powerful influence, it follows as a sequence that it will be of 
greater prevalence in some districts than in others. Yet I doubt 
much if there is any district, in this country at least, that is altogether 
exempted. I may here mention that cases of it occurring in my prac¬ 
tice among horses are very largely on the increase. I attribute this 
to the indiscriminate denuding of horses of their natural covering, at 
all times and seasons, since the introduction of horse-clipping machines. 
I am of opinion that, as a rule, no horse should be clipped between 
the 1st of December and the 1st of April. 
Since the fact became known that the fibro-serous structures of the 
heart are so liable to become affected by rheumatism in the acute 
form, causing such structural change and functional derangement, 
the study of the disease, as to its nature, has received very much 
additional importance. And this is not to be wondered at, when it is 
considered that it is upon the structural soundness and healthy action 
of this vital organ that the existence and usefulness of the horse 
depends. Rheumatism is a disease which affects all the fibro-serous 
textures of the system, and is met with in two forms, which are dis¬ 
tinguished as the acute and the chronic. The first symptom of the 
acute form is awkward gait, with unwillingness to move, generally 
accompanied with shivering and staring coat. At this time the pulse 
may be natural, but frequently languid, with little or no alteration of 
temperature. By-and-by the pulse quickens, the respirations become 
accelerated, and the temperature rises to 104° or 105°. I have met 
with a case when it rose to 107°. The animal will now assume a 
position very characteristic of this disease—viz., one fore-leg pointed, 
and one hind one knuckled over at the fetlock joint. In the neigh¬ 
bourhood of the joints will now be observed hot, puffy swellings; and 
the tendinous part of the muscles in the region of the afflicted joint 
can be traced to the muscular structure. The joints most liable to 
become affected in animals are the knees, fetlock, hocks, and stifle 
joints. It is seldom that we meet with all these affected at the same 
time ; but it will be noticed if one hock or stifle becomes affected, 
the corresponding joint on the opposite side will soon show signs of 
being implicated; and, in proportion to the extent and tensity of the 
swellings, will be evinced the degree of pain the animal is suffering. 
