XXIIL— OSSIFICATION OF THE CARDIAC AURICLES. 



This morning I purpose speaking of ossification of the righ 

 auricle, a lesion which is sometimes seen in the horse, and though not 

 mentioned in the majority of classic works, has occasionally been 

 reported in French and other periodical publications. 



I will give you the details of a case. This specimen which I 

 exhibit was obtained by M. Barillot, a veterinary surgeon practising 

 in Paris, at the post-mortem examination of a pony. It is a greatly 

 enlarged and almost completely ossified right auricle ; its anterior 

 portion is thickened and of bony consistence throughout, but the 

 upper part has only undergone this change to a limited extent. It 

 presents rounded irregular areas of spongy bone tissue, varying in size 

 between that of a large pea and of a sixpence ; almost all project 

 more or less on both surfaces of the auricle. 



In the Coinpte Rendu des Travaux de rEcole d'Alfort for the session 

 1836-7, Renault mentioned in the following terms a case of the same 

 nature seen in a glandered horse, whose age, however, is not given. 

 " The right auricle was considerably enlarged and weighed 2 lbs., was 

 thickened and ossified throughout nine tenths of its extent, and the 

 muscular fibres had been compressed and atrophied by the bony new 

 growth. The lesions on the convex surface of the auricle were as 

 hard and resonant as bone. They were less developed in the interior, 

 where they had the appearance and consistence of cartilage. Ossifica- 

 tion suddenly ceased at the junction of the auricle with the ventricle, 

 and at the upper part where the auricle becomes continuous with 

 the venae cavse. At their junction the veins formed an accidental 

 pouch with muscular walls, the substance of which was continuous 

 with that of the auricle, and appeared to have assisted the latter in its 

 function. The other portions of the heart were healthy." Renault 

 adds that cases of partial ossification of the heart, and especially of 

 the auricles, had previously been noted in men and animals. 



