352 PALPITATION OF THE HEART. 



dependent on the quality of the latter. Physicians have 

 termed " anaemic murmurs/' the peculiar sounds heard most 

 distinctly in the lower animals, and due to the churning 

 sustained by the blood in passing through channels of vary- 

 ing size, as it traverses the heart. There is a venous blood- 

 sound heard by applying the ear over the jugular veins at 

 the root of the neck in ansemia. It is a continuous hum, to 

 which the French have applied the term of " bruit de diable." 

 It is extremely difficult to distinguish a blood-sound in the 

 horse from a valvular murmur, because we cannot con- 

 veniently compare the heart-sounds at different parts. In 

 man there are great facilities for such distinctions. It is, 

 however, important to be as accurate as possible, as valvular 

 murmurs indicate organic disease of the heart, and valvular 

 insufficiency. Daily observations, and comparing the sounds 

 as heard at different parts, from above downwards, will often 

 prove satisfactory. 



Anaemic palpitation of the heart is of course cured by the 

 tonic treatment, liberal diet, &c., which are prescribed for the 

 general treatment of the bloodless state. The organs of 

 circulation must not be over-taxed by much exertion. 



In man, there is a form of palpitation termed dyspeptic, 

 and due to stomach derangement. This is, so far as I am 

 aware, unknown in the lower animals. 



The third and last form of palpitation has most singularly 

 been mistaken for spasm of the diaphragm. 



Mr Percivall, in his Hippo-Pathology, says : " If I mistake 

 not, our attention was first called to this subject by the cele- 

 brated Nimrod, the late Mr Apperley. In his admirable 

 'Letters on Condition/ so long ago as the year 1825, he 

 remarks, while discoursing of treatment after a hard and 

 long run, ' When a horse is very much exhausted after a 

 long race with hounds, a noise will sometimes be heard to 



