558 DISEASES OF THE PERICARDIUM. 



when these structures are extensively diseased. In all, the 

 general disturbance is sufficient to direct our attention to the 

 state of the heart. There is feebleness and deficiency of tone 

 and force both in the heart's action and in the pulsations ; this 

 change of character in the circulatory forces is of gradual but 

 steady development, until the inequality and irregularity ter- 

 minate in feebleness and intermittency. 



The cases of pericarditis which appear to be of a primary or 

 idiopathic character, owing their existence to cold, exposure, 

 and bad treatment, I have observed have all occurred in young 

 horses, animals under two years of age, and which had been 

 much exposed, being unprovided with sufficient shelter during 

 the late autumn or early spring, and inadequately supplied with 

 food. Several of these had shown no symptoms, general or 

 special, of ill-health, and others only a trifling amount of in- 

 appetency or a somewhat unthrifty condition of the coat and 

 skin. The lesions observable were the existence of fluid and 

 fibrinous exudate in the pericardial sac, with or without 

 adhesions between the visceral and outer layers of the mem- 

 brane, and sometimes with much thickening of the entire 

 membrane itself, all which changes indicated considerable in- 

 flammatory action, which, as stated, had never been significant 

 or pronounced enough to attract attention. 



On all these occasions, upon making careful and minute 

 inquiries, I have found that now when the matter of previous 

 illness has been placed before the attendants, it is recollected 

 that the animal was somewhat indisposed, or at least that some 

 S3niiptoms were shown which, with the death, have received 

 their correct interpretation. Usually these symptoms have 

 been described as lassitude ; an open condition of the coat, it 

 may be rigors, inclination to be alone, and when made to move 

 seeming stiff or lame, the exertion causing the animal to breathe 

 rapidly and probably to cough. 



Treatment. — In the management of cases of pericarditis it is 

 important to have as clear an understanding as possible of the 

 causes which seem to operate in its production, and of the col- 

 lateral associations as respects morbid action in the animal in 

 which it occurs. 



Pericarditis as a primary and idiopathic affection is rather a 

 different matter from the same condition as a symptom or 



