404 FOREIGN BODIES INJURING THE HEART. 



perforation was much thickened and adherent to its inner 

 layer, which was likewise thickened and firmly attached to 

 the muscular tissue. m The pericardium contained three ounces 

 of a reddish serum. The heart was enlarged and more 

 rounded than is natural; it had a deep reddish-brown colour, 

 and its coronary vessels gorged with blood. The left cavities 

 were filled with blood, the auriculo-ventricular opening more 

 than normally open, and below this orifice was a little particle 

 of wood arranged transversely and supported by its extremi- 

 ties on the tendinous cords of the mitral valve, which it pulled 

 down so as almost to close the aorta. This piece of wood, 

 which was a little over an inch long and as thick as a writing 

 quill, was no other than a pomegranate prickle which the 

 creature had picked up with her food. The internal aspect 

 of the left auricle and ventricle was of a deep red colour, 

 intermixed with black patches, which penetrated for some 

 distance into the muscular tissue. Three cordae tendinso 

 were torn, the aorta empty, the right side of the heart had its 

 endocardium of a reddish hue, but with no other discoloura- 

 tion; the pulmonary artery was nearly half-filled with very 

 black blood, and the lungs were congested. The whole venous 

 system was engorged with black blood. 



The most satisfactory account of accidents of the descrip- 

 tion of those under consideration is given us by M. Boizy, 

 in the Receuil de Mtdfcine de Veterinaire for 1858. He 

 gives the details of six cases of this kind, all proceeding to 

 a chronic form, and showing little difference in symptoms. 

 The first, a six-year-old cow, continued ill for nineteen 

 days, and was then destroyed. For fifteen days it had been 

 attended by an empiric; on the eighth day she calved, 

 but there was no secretion of milk. Symptoms. Great 

 emaciation and weakness; considerable effusion under the 

 sternum and abdomen; eyes dull and sunk in their orbits; 



