usually it
remains fixed in the muscle first attacked. The appetite and digestion
are not often impaired, and there is no fever. The duration of this form
of rheumatism varies from a few hours to a week or more.

In subacute or chronic muscular rheumatism, pain is excited only when
the affected muscles are contracted with unusual force, and then it is
similar to that experienced in the acute form. The chronic form is more
apt to change its position than the acute. The duration of this form is
indefinite. In both the acute and chronic forms some particular parts of
the body are more subject to the affection than others.

The muscles on the posterior part of the _neck_ are subject to rheumatic
affection. It is termed _torticollis_ or _cervical_ rheumatism in such
cases, and should be distinguished from ordinary neuralgia. When the
muscles of the loins are affected, it is commonly known as _lumbago_. In
case the thoracic muscles are affected, it is known as _pleurodynia_. In
coughing, sneezing, and the like, the pain produced is not unlike that
in pleuritis and intercostal neuralgia.

One of the most marked features of muscular rheumatism, is the
cramp-like pain, induced by the movements of the affected muscles,
whereas the pain is slight when those muscles are uncontracted. This
feature is very serviceable in distinguishing muscular rheumatism, or
myalgia, from neuralgic affections. Another trait which distinguishes
muscular rheumatism from neuralgia, is that the former is characterized
by great soreness, while the latter is not. There is also a distinction
between inflammation of the muscles and muscular rheumatism. In the case
of the former, there is continued pain, swelling of the parts,
occasional redness, and the presence of more or less fever, which
conditions do not exist in the latter. Persons subject to rheumatism of
the muscles, are apt to suffer from an attack, after exposure of the
body to a draught of air during sleep, or when in a state of
perspiration.

TREATMENT OF ACUTE RHEUMATISM. Administer the spirit vapor-bath to
produce free perspiration, which should be maintained by full doses of
the Compound Extract of Smart-weed. The anodyne properties of the latter
also prove very valuable in allaying the pain. Tincture or fluid extract
of aconite root may also be employed, to assist in equalizing the
circulation, and also to secure its anodyne action. Black cohosh seems
to exert a specific and salutary infl