Symptoms. 



1067 



right heart a positive (systolic) pulse of the jugular veins 

 may even be noticeable (relative insufficiency of the tricuspid). 

 Further, cyanotic discoloration of the mucous membranes is 

 observed; also attacks of vertigo; in more advanced cases, 

 considerable dyspnea, sometimes pulmonary hemorrhage, 

 edema, hydrops of the body cavities, diminution of the amount 

 of urine, etc. Some of these phenomena are at first hardlv 

 noticeable when the animals are at rest, but they increase 

 decidedly even on brief motion and sometimes to such a degree 

 that the animal may die suddenly with sjanptoms of asphj^xia. 



Fig. 188. Cardiac Dilatation. The dotted line gives the borders of the normal heart 

 dullness, which appears in the illustration to lie too high, on account of the 

 swelling of the lower chest. The solid line indicates the upper and posterior borders 

 of the greatly enlarged heart dullness. Owing to the dilatation, the punctum maxi- 

 mum of the systolic sounds arising in the left venous ostium (large circle) and of 

 the second pulmonary sound (small circle) is displaced upward. (Compare Fig. 189.) 



Course. If the animals are cared for, the symptoms ma}", 

 if they are not yet severe, diminish considerably, and in such 

 cases the cardiac dullness will become much smaller. In acute 

 dilatation a complete retrogression may be observed, which, 

 however, usually leaves a hypertrophy behind. 



Diagnosis. The characteristic symptoms of cardiac dilata- 

 tion are: enlargement of the heart dullness, increase in the 

 force of the first heart sound, arhythmia of the heart action, 

 feeble pulse, symptoms of stasis. The feebleness of the pulse 

 differentiates the disease from primary hypertrophy of the 



