366 CLINICAL VETERINARY MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 



the stable as usual about ten o'clock, and she then seemed to me to be 

 ruminating like the others. At any rate I noticed nothing remarkable, 

 and at six o'clock next morning she gave the same quantity of milk as 

 on the preceding days. Next morning she was found dead. As to the 

 swallowing of some sharp body, or the cause of death itself, the expla- 

 nation is as follows : — At the beginning of February I received from 

 Brittany some hay in bales fastened with iron wire. A fragment of 

 this wire must have fallen into the food given to this animal and have 

 been swallowed." 



As none of this hay had been used after the first week of March, the 

 fragment of wire had remained for about three months in the stomach 

 and in the tissues it had traversed before producing fatal results. 



RUPTURE OF THE RIGHT VENTRICLE IN THE HORSE. 



75. A five-year-old well-nourished brown cart gelding, 16.2 hands 

 high. 



History. — Had recently been purchased and only worked for a fort- 

 night. On the ist July, 1896, had made a long journey involving 

 much hill climbing ; arrived at its destination, the animal had to draw 

 and back through new-made ground. It suddenly plunged, fell, gave 

 a few convulsive struggles, and died. 



Autopsy. — The right side of the thoracic wall was wounded over 

 the ninth rib by the broken shaft, but the chest cavity was not pene- 

 trated. Abdominal organs healthy. Right lung hypostatically con- 

 gested, but lungs otherwise normal. The pericardium was distended 

 with blood. On cautiously incising it and examining the heart three 

 ruptures were found in the wall of the right ventricle ; the first, about 

 two and a half inches in length, situated almost centrally in the wall 

 of the ventricle, was irregularly funnel-shaped, being large externally, 

 and tapering down to an aperture about three quarters of an inch 

 across, communicating with the interior of the ventricle. The muscular 

 fibres were not shredded, but showed a comparatively "short" frac- 

 ture. The second wound resembled the first, was two inches from 

 the apex of the heart, about three quarters of an inch in length, and 

 communicated with the ventricle by a mere point. The third was 

 about one eighth inch across and a quarter of an inch in depth ; it 

 lay half an inch from the apex of the heart, but did not communicate 

 with the ventricle. Measured at their thinnest points the thickness 

 of the walls of the various heart cavities was as follows : — Right auricle 

 five sixteenths of an inch ; left auricle (close to junction with ventricle) 

 two inches ; right ventricle five eighths of an inch ; left ventricle (near 

 auricle) two and three eighths inches ; near apex of heart one and a 

 quarter inches ; septum one and seven eighths inches. 



Mr. Jno. A. W. Dollar's case, Veterinarian, 1896, p. 670. 



RUPTURE OF THE PULMONARY ARTERY. 



76. A two-year-old Irish setter, bought when five weeks old. 

 At the age of ten months had suffered from severe distemper, but 

 had completely recovered, and afterwards enjoyed good health. 



