202 DISEASES OF THE HEART. 



explication. Either inflammation or increased vascular 

 action might be assigned as its cause, and this frequently 

 co-exists with disease in the pleura; or_, it may be con- 

 sentaneous with that dropsical diathesis of body, under the 

 constitutional influence of which all the serous membranes — 

 those of the chest and abdomen, and head too perhaps — are 

 pouring forth augmented secretion. Earely, I believe, will 

 this dropsy prove dependent upon disease or disorder of the 

 pericardium alone. 



RUPTURE or THE PERICARDIUM. 



Mr. G. M. Marshall, of York, relates a case of this de- 

 scription. He was summoned very early in the morning, 

 in August, 1838, to a case of tetanus. Being acute and 

 highly dangerous, he continued in attendance until the 

 evening, when, on entering the stable, he all at once heard 

 '^ a thumping sort of noise,^' which, he found, was occa- 

 sioned by a strong spasmodic action of his (the patient^s) 

 heart/' In a few minutes after, the horse died. The 

 heart was found " much enlarged, and the pericardium rup- 

 tured. There was no blood in the heart.'^^ 



CARDITIS. 



Inflammation of the muscular substance of the heart 

 may be either general or partial : at least, this is the division 

 made of it by Laennec, who nevertheless adds, — '* There 

 perhaps does not exist on record a satisfactory case of 

 general inflammation of the heart, either acute or chronic :'' 

 — '^ unless, indeed, we choose to consider the word in flam- 

 mation as synonymous with (discoloration or) alteration or 

 disease/' — "pus must be considered as the most unequi- 

 vocal indication of inflammation." 



Veterinary records do not appear to furnish any such 

 cases as would, according to the above definition, be re- 

 garded as carditis. 



' The case will be found in ' The Veterinarian,' vol. xiii, pp. 140-1. 



