2U DISEASES OF THE HEART. 



the left ventricle of the heart, is related in vol. xiv of 

 The Veterinarian, by Mr. Harrison, V.S., Southport. 

 The subject was a cart-mare, nine years old, who, from her 

 youth, had been in the habit of drawing heavy loads, on 

 which occasions her spirit seemed to exceed her strength, 

 though she had always maintained her health, notwithstand- 

 ing that, for some months before her death, she had not 

 thriven as heretofore. Though apparently quite well, for 

 the first time in her life, after a hard day's ploughing, she 

 refused her food, aftd appeared very weak, for which she was 

 bled, which made her still weaker. When Mr. Harrison 

 first saw her she was scarcely able to stand, and, while he was 

 in the act of feeling her pulse, she staggered and fell. The 

 pulse, after she was down, was very small and weak, and it 

 was not, with any accuracy, to be counted. She became 

 comatose, with her respiration nearly suppressed, as though 

 she were dead. When she came to, the breathing was shorter 

 and quicker than natural. Mr. Harrison had her destroyed. 

 The stomach was found in a state oi collapse; but her disease 

 was in the heart. '^ The left ventricle proved in such a state 

 of dilatation that it almost filled the left cavity of the chest, 

 usually occupied by the lung, but which latter had gradually 

 become absorbed, to accommodate itself to the increased 

 size of the ventricle, and this (absorption) had proceeded so 

 far, that the lung did not exceed the size of the breadth of 

 one's hand, and this remnant was situated at the most 

 posterior and superior part of the chest. The brain was 

 perfectly healthy." 



OSSIFICATION OF THE HEART. 



Mr. Henderson, V.S., London, has in his museum a 

 remarkably fine specimen of this disease. The parietes of 

 the right auricle are converted into osseous substance, ren- 

 dering that cavity but a passive receptacle for the blood : 

 the current must have continued without any, or with hardly 

 any, fresh impulse into the ventricle. All that Mr. Henderson 

 knows about the case is, that the horse from which the 



