EUPTUEES OF THE HEAET. 361 



from a height on to his head or feet, it is presumable 

 that the heart, losing for a moment its tonicity, may be 

 preternaturally disposed to rupture at its weakest part, 

 in consequence of the jerk of the contained fluid. 2ndly, 

 We have to consider the ruptures which are occasioned by 

 the application of direct violence to the chest wall. A girl 

 was suddenly killed by the passage of a cart-wheel over her 

 body. The heart was literally smashed, as the liver so com- 

 monly is in the crush of a man between the buffers of two 

 railway carriages. It is particularly worthy of notice, though 

 readily explicable on account of the elasticity of the tissues 

 composing the chest- wall, that they had scarcely suffered any 

 injury. There can be no doubt that, in a minor degree, 

 some blows on the chest may produce rupture of the heart 

 by a mechanism similar to the preceding. Ollivier (Hem., 

 cit.) believes that the passage of a wheel over the chest may 

 sometimes occasion rupture of the heart by compressing the 

 pulmonary artery, and opposing an obstacle to the flow of 

 blood, to overcome which the heart acts with redoubled 

 vigour, and consequently cracks." 



My brother, moreover, mentions that "Extensive re- 

 search in the records of veterinary medicine and sur- 

 gery, for cases in animals similar to those above re- 

 corded in man, has resulted in the discovery of only one, 

 which fell under the notice of Mr Parker of Birmingham.* 

 ' My attendance,' he says, ' was requested to a pony which, 

 running away with a gig down a hill, had, with his right 

 shoulder, struck violently against the wheel of a cart. He 



* Veterinarian, May, 1855, p. 268-9. My brother says: "My 

 quotation is not literal, but a condensation of Mr Parker's report, 

 with some additional information in point, which this gentleman has 

 kindly communicated to me, in reply to inquiries addressed to* him, at 

 my suggestion, by Professor Simmonds." 



