HYPERTROPHY. 209 



One or two, or even all four, of the cavities of the heart 

 may be hypertrophied. In the last case, the entire heart 

 has been known to acquire double its natural volume, and 

 upwards ; a rare occurrence, though one which, when it does 

 happen, is, according to D^Arboval, invariably referable 

 to emphysema. The ventricles oftener become hyper- 

 trophied than the auricles, "because,^^ says Dr. Hope, 

 ''they are exposed to a greater variety of exciting causes, 

 and because the auricles are remarkably protected by the 

 auriculo-ventricular valves.^' Hypertrophy is frequently 

 complicated with chronic inflammation of the external and 

 internal membranous envelopes of the heart. 



The SYMPTOMS of hypertrophy in horses are, I am afraid, 

 but too little known to warrant any attempt at separate 

 description of them. The following cases will prove our 

 surest guides in practice. I believe the first ever published 

 in this country emanated from 



Mr. Pritchard. — He was called to attend a three-parts 

 bred six-year-old mare, employed in a posting establishment 

 in Wolverhampton. "Her pulse was hard, with sufficient 

 dilatation of the submaxillary artery; respiration laborious ; 

 membranes of the eye and nostrils vascular ; surface of the 

 body and extremities warm ; off her feeding. — Mr. Pritchard 

 " listened to the heart ; its contractions were powerful, loud, 

 and regular ; but the organ was evidently much oppressed. ^^ 

 Notwithstanding active and judicious treatment adopted by 

 Mr. P., the mare died, owing to his not being sent for 

 earlier. On examination, in the pericardiac sac was found 

 a small quantity of healthy fluid. " The right side of the 

 heart was considerably enlarged, particularly the right ven- 

 tricle, and without the softening of the walls. It was a 

 fine specimen of hypertrophy of the right auricle and ven- 

 tricle.'^ The lungs were apparently too large for their 

 cavities, which contained but little serous fluid. They were 

 very heavy in hand, and, when cut' into, were found, 

 throughout, oedematous. 



Mr. Thomson, V.S., Beith, N.B., published, a few months 

 afterwards, the following case : 



II. 14 



