216 DISEASES OF THE HEART. 



Journal' for 1785; and adds — ''As air in the ventricles is 

 incompatible with the maintenance of life, it must, in these 

 cases, have been generated, or conveyed there, after death/' 



In 1837, without being aware that any similar observation 

 had been made either on man or animals, I sent the sub- 

 joined account to The Veterinarian : 



A horse, three years old, was taken unwell after the 

 ordinary mode in which a febrile catarrhal attack commences. 

 He was off his feed ; dull and dejected ; and his pulse was 

 increased to about 55. He took three drachms of aloes, 

 and lived upon a bran diet, and was ordered to be kept 

 quiet in his stable. The day following he was removed from 

 his stable into a box ; but nothing further was done, the 

 medicine appearing to be about acting on the bowels. The 

 morning of the third day he purged : water-gruel was now 

 substituted for water for his drink. He ate his hay, and 

 appeared to be doing well. His pulse continued between 

 55 and 60 ; but was grown so feeble at the jaw that more 

 than ordinary attention was required to perceive the beats 

 of the artery. I saw him alive for the last time at one o'clock, 

 on this (the third) day. At five o'clock, p.m., he had drunk 

 a pailful of gruel, and still appeared going on well. At 

 half-past six, p.m., he was found dead in his box ; having, 

 from the position of the carcass, evidently fallen quite sud- 

 denly, and, as it would seem, died without a struggle. 



Being fully prepared to meet with some post-mortem 

 appearance out of the ordinary way, more than usual pains 

 were taken in opening the body. The sternum was carefully 

 removed by sawing through the cartilages of the ribs, with- 

 out cutting into or disarranging the pericardiac membrane. 

 No sooner was the pericardiac case opened, than out pro- 

 truded the heart with a very unusual sort of jerk, it 

 appearing as though the bag containing it were too small 

 for it, and it were pressing for liberation. Denuded of its 

 bracing membrane, the heart plumped up — the right ven- 

 tricle in particular, wliicli now lay uppermost — appearing 

 enormously distended, the tumefaction conveying to the 

 pressure of the fingers the sense of fluctuation. I myself. 



