OSSIFICATION OF THE CARDIAC AURICLES. 155 



and afterwards to glanders. Soon afterwards a sarcocele developed 

 and was operated on. With a little pus taken from the end of the 

 epididymis a guinea-pig was inoculated. The result was negative. 

 The patient steadily became weaker, and was finally slaughtered. On 

 incising the pericardium lesions of fibrinous pericarditis were found. 

 The heart was verj- large, the ventricles dilated and their walls thinned. 

 The right auricle was whitish and hard, its cavity diminished in size, 

 and its walls ossified throughout almost their entire extent. It weighed 

 nearly four pounds. 



Veret's case was that of a seventeen-3'ear-old trooper which died in 

 consequence of a fracture. On post-mortem the right heart was found 

 to be " calcified." 



I pass over in silence some other cases reported abroad. They add 

 nothing interesting to what I have just related. 



Let us now return to the horse, in which M. Barillot found the 

 specimen he has sent us. Its history can be given in a few words : — A 

 pony bought in London, in October, 1895, attacked with some chest 

 disease soon after its arrival in Paris. Became convalescent in a 

 fortnight, and was sent to grass in the He Saint-Denis, for three weeks'. 



Before its illness this pony was very lively, and had good action, 

 for which reason it cost a considerable sum. On being returned to its 

 owner it had lost its vigour and pace, was " soft "in work, dull in the 

 stable, hung back from the manger, and its extremities were cold. On 

 the 5th January an oedematous swelling appeared under the chest. 

 My colleague, who was at once called, carefully examined the animal, 

 and diagnosed pleurisy, at the same time noting certain signs of heart 

 disease. Treatment pro\ed unsuccessful, and two days later the pony 

 died. 



On post-mortem the pleural cavity was found to contain an abundant 

 exudate ; the heart was hypertrophied ; and the walls of the right 

 auricle were thickened, hard, and ossified throughout the greater 

 portion of their surface. The case, therefore, was one of ossification of 

 the heart muscle. Sections showed the characteristic appearances of 

 bony tissue, concentric bony lamellae, and osteoplasts. 



Ossification of the auricles is most common in aged animals, though 

 sometimes seen in relatively young subjects. The pony of which I 

 have just spoken was only five years old. A further curious point is 

 that the right auricle is almost always the sole point attacked ; even 

 when it is completely ossified the left auricle is usuall}- entirel}' free. 



The causes of this peculiar change in the heart are unknown. In 



