136 VETERINARY HOMEOPATHY. 



on a healthy horse, in order to become acquainted, as far as it is 

 possible, with the normal heart sounds; in this way experience 

 will be obtained that will enable one the more readily to detect 

 abnormal sounds and movements. 



Disturbance of the heart's action is due to two distinct causes, 

 namely, first to interference with the healthy performance of its 

 functions which arises from a want of balance in the nerve supph^ 

 and also from irregularities of the digestive organs; and second, to 

 organic and structural alteration, such as thickening or thinning 

 of the muscular walls of the heart; dilatation or lessening of the 

 cavities in size; thickening of the valves due to inflammation of 

 the serous membrane which lines the cavities and covers the 

 valves. 



PALPITATION. 



It will be well to give some careful attention to the considera- 

 tion of this disorder, because we believe that among the higher- 

 bred class of horses, especially those kept for racing purposes, 

 owners and trainers frequently erroneously attribute the failure of 

 their charges to defective respiration, whereas the weak spot is 

 the heart; palpitation comes under the category of a functional 

 disorder, and may therefore be the more easily controlled, if the 

 right measures are resorted to. ' Blood horses are of essentially 

 excitable and highly-nervous temperaments, which fact alone is 

 sufficient to account for many cases of palpitation, and although 

 verv little importance has hitherto attached to cardiac diseases 

 among the great number of the veterinary profession, we have no 

 hesitation in affirming that palpitation occurs much more fre- 

 quently among highly-bred horses than is generally acknowledged. 

 This want of recognition may probably be accounted for by the 

 fact that a liorse may be the subject of it and yet keep up the 

 appearance of an animal in the bloom of health, betraying no out- 

 ward and visible signs of weakness beyond hurried breathing after 

 a sharp gallop; under such circumstances trainers and owners, who 

 do not possess even an elementary acquaintance with physiology, 

 would naturally attribute this to the wind, and inasmuch as these 

 gentlemen are, as a rule, very well contented to rely upon their 

 own knowledge, the real truth never comes out; and, though we 

 regret to have to state the opinion, we fear that not a few profes- 



