284 VETERINARY LECTURES 



to swell, preparations of iron, digitalis, and potash will assist materially 

 in giving tone to the animal {par. 1073, No. I.). 



439. In the examination of horses as to soundness, it is of the 

 greatest importance to note the state of the pulse, and the sounds of 

 the heart, as well as those of the breathing. I have met with cases 

 said to be ' broken-winded,' when, on examination, heart disease 

 was found to cause the difficulty in breathing. 



440. Acute cases of diseases of the heart and its covering — the 

 pericardium — are frequently associated with severe attacks of 

 pneumonia, pleurisy, influenza, pink-eye, rheumatic affections, etc. Here 

 the covering of the heart becomes intensely inflamed, producing 

 fibrinous deposits and effusion of water into the chest and pericardial 

 sac (hydrops pericardii). These cases are so complicated and so rapid 

 that they require early and judicious treatment, as they are frequently 

 fatal. A horse— particularly a stallion— fed up for sale on too much 

 starchy matter, such as boiled wheat, potatoes, etc., and having little 

 or no work to do, is subject to sudden general congestive febrile 

 attacks affecting the whole system, when, from the hurried circulation, 

 fibrinous strings form round the tendinous cords in the ventricles, 

 and accumulate so fast that the animal dies from failure of the heart's 

 action by this ante-mortem clot of yellow fibrinous, fatty-looking 

 material blocking up the passages through the heart and the large 

 vessels. 



441. In the old farrier days, when bleeding was so much run 

 upon, these cases were bled four or five times in twenty-four hours. 

 This repeated bleeding tended to increase the fibrinous matter in the 

 blood, so that, instead of relieving the animal, the operators only 

 assisted in killing it, and on post-mortem the verdict was that it had 

 died from grease at the heart. These cases require prompt treatment. 

 If bled at all it should only be once, and at the very first. The animal 

 ought to be kept quiet, and given plenty of ammoniated nitrate water 

 to drink [par. 1067, No. VI X 



442. The Cow, as already noted, suffers more from heart diseases 

 than the horse, owing to foreign bodies passing through the walls of 

 the stomach to the heart. The animal may go on feeding and doing 



