DILATATION OF THE HEAET. 37 ! 



large and flabby; lymph was effused into the cellular sub- 

 stance around its base; the right auricle was very much en- 

 larged, being three times the size of the left, and its walls 

 thin; the right ventricle was dilated, but not at all in pro- 

 portion with the auricle ; the left auricle was not dilated, but 

 the left ventricle was much enlarged, and its walls, especially 

 at the extreme of the apex, so thin that Mr Pritchard felt 

 a little astonished that it could have contracted without 

 rupture, for it was not more than one eighth of an inch in 

 thickness. The heart weighed ten pounds, and measured in 

 circumference, at the base, two feet seven inches. The lungs 

 were perfectly healthy. Mucous lining of the bowels tumid 

 from serous engorgement. Absorbents of the large in- 

 testines loaded with red-yellow lymph ; but near to the re- 

 ceptaculum chyli, with blood. The thoracic duct contained 

 principally blood, but was not much dilated. The liver was 

 in a state of sanguineous engorgement, weighing nearly 

 thirty pounds. There was extravasation of blood into the 

 parenchyma. 



A most extraordinary case of dilatation or aneurism of the 

 left ventricle of the heart, is related in voL xiv. of the Veteri- 

 narian, by Mr Harrison, V.S., Southport. The subject was 

 a cart-mare, nine years old, who, from her youth, had been in 

 the habit of drawing heavy loads, on which occasions her 

 spirit seemed to exceed her strength, though she had always 

 maintained her health, notwithstanding that, for some months 

 before her death, she had not thriven as heretofore. Though 

 apparently quite well, for the first time in her life, after a 

 hard day's ploughing, she refused her food, and appeared 

 very weak, for which she was bled, which made her still 

 weaker. When Mr Harrison first saw her she was scarcely 

 able to stand, and, while he was in the act of feeling her 

 pulse, she staggered and fell The pulse, after she was down 



