RUPTURE OF THE HEART. 217 



as well as my friend, the late Dr. Campbell, who was present 

 at the examination, opined, either that fluid blood or air 

 must be within. I cut into the ventricle transversely, near 

 its apex, with a scalpel, and, to my surprise, a quantity of 

 air burst forth, the parietes of the cavity instantly after col- 

 lapsing precisely in the manner a distended stomach or 

 intestine would have done ; and what adds to this similitude 

 is, that the escaped gas had a fetid odour. This was fol- 

 lowed by a copious efflux of fluid, grumous, ill-conditioned 

 blood, which, as it flowed, bubbled and frothed as though 

 air had been mixed up with it. The parietes of the right 

 ventricle were unusually thin from the dilatation they had 

 undergone ; while those of the left ventricle were in altogether 

 an opposite state — extraordinary contraction and density, 

 almost to the obliteration of its cavity. The auricles both 

 contained blood ; but there was this difi'erence — that, in the 

 left, the coagulum was unusually small and firm, while the 

 blood in the right was very loosely and imperfectly coagu- 

 lated. The coagula in the pulmonary veins were perfect, 

 but soft and black, and easily lacerated. The right lung 

 was dark-coloured, and in places exhibited incipient hepati- 

 zation : the left lung was in a perfectly sound condition. 



RUPTURE OF THE HEART. 



This sad and fatal lesion arises in one of two ways : — it 

 may either be the result of mechanical force, or it may be 

 the product of ulceration. 



Any violent action or excessive exertion may prove 

 the occasion of rupture in a heart perfectly sound and 

 healthy. I recollect, some years ago, during one of the 

 racing meetings that used to be held annually at Woolwich, 

 one of the horses, who had vehemently contested, and lost 

 only by half-a-neck, a heat, suddenly falling and dying just 

 after he had passed the winning-post; whose body I afterwards 

 examined, and therein found the heart, burst : I think it was 

 the right auricle that had given way — the animal had lite- 

 rally died of "a broken heart.'' 



