THE HEART. jtyj 



CHEST-FOUNDER. 



These muscles are occasionally the seat of a singular and somewhat 

 mysterious disease. The old farriers used to call it anticor and chest- 

 founder. The horse has considerable stiffness in moving, evidently no 

 referable to the feet. There is tenderness about the muscles of the breast, 

 and occasionally swelling, and after a while, the muscles of the chest 

 waste considerably. We believe it to be nothing more than rheumatism, 

 produced by suffering the horse to remain too long tied up, and exposed to 

 the cold, or riding him against a very bleak wind. Sometimes a con- 

 siderable degree of fever accompanies this ; but bleeding, physic, a rowel 

 in the chest, warm embrocations over the parts affected, warm stabling, 

 and warm clothing, with doses of a drachm or two of antimonial powder, 

 will soon subdue the complaint. 



DROPSY OF THE SKIN OF THE CHEST. 



Dropsical swellings often appear between the fore-legs, and on the chest. 

 They are effusions of fluid underneath the skin. They accompany various 

 diseases, particularly when the animal is weakened by them, and sometimes 

 appear when there is no other disease than the debility, which, in the 

 spring and fall of the year, accompanies the changing of the coat. The 

 treatment will vary with the cause of the affection, or the accompanying 

 disease. Small punctures with the lancet will seldom do harm ; friction 

 of the part, if it can be borne, will be serviceable ; mild exercise should 

 be used ; diuretics given, mixed with some cordial, with liberal food, as 

 carrots, malt mashes, and occasionally a very mild dose of physic, and that 

 followed by tonics and cordials, with diuretics. The vegetable tonics, as 

 gentian and columbo with ginger, will be most effectual. 



The cavity of the trunk consists of two compartments, divided from each 

 other by the diaphragm or midriff. The first, into which we have traced 

 the gullet and the windpipe, contains the heart and the lungs. It is lined 

 by a delicate membrane, called the pleura (the side, or membrane of the 

 side), which likewise extends over and affords a covering to the lungs. 

 A portion of it, dipping down from its attachment to the spine, separates 

 the chest into two parts, each of which contains one of the lobes or divi- 

 sions of the lungs ; and this portion, the mediastinum (standing in the middle), 

 forms a kind of bag enveloping the heart. The use of this membrane is to 

 throw out a fluid to moisten the different surfaces, and prevent all dangerous 

 friction or rubbing between these important parts ; and, also, to support 

 these organs in their natural situation. 



THE HEART. 



The heart is placed between a doubling of the pleura, and is likewise sur- 

 rounded by a membrane or bag of its own, called the pericardium (about 

 the heart). This likewise throws out a fluid, for the purposes above men- 

 tioned. When the pericardium or the heart itself becomes inflamed, this 

 secretion is much increased ; and so much fluid accumulates as to obstruct 

 ;he beating of the heart. This disease is called dropsy of the heart. It 

 •s not easily distinguished from inflammation of the lungs ; but this is a 

 •natter of little consequence, for the treatment would be nearly the same 

 ir both. 



The heart is the engine by which the blood is circulated through the 

 frame It is composed of four cavities two above called auricles, from tlieir 



