PHLEBOLITES. 445 



" ' The weight of the tumours, taken altogether, is not quite fourteen 

 drachms. The large one weighs just six drachms and a-half, and the 

 small one but one drachm and a-half. 



" ' Being desirous of examining the heart, in order to see whether it, 

 or the vessels immediately proceeding from it, had undergone any 

 change, your President has made a section of it, and, I believe, there 

 is nothing abnormal to be observed; but the jugular vein being imper- 

 vious, and these tumours occupying it, I should not have been sur- 

 prised if we had found the valves of the heart affected. I believe, 

 however, that the semi-lunar valves opening into the aorta and the -pul- 

 monary artery are perfectly healthy, as well as all the others. 



" * It is questionable whether these tumours possess a distinct organi- 

 zation. One would be almost inclined to conceive that they did, for, 

 otherwise, they would have acted as foreign agents, and inflammatory 

 action would have taken place, and a sloughing of the coats of the vein 

 in order to allow of their escape. This not being the case, and their 

 existing for the long time they must have done in order to attain their 

 present size, are, I think, clear proofs that they possess a distinct organi- 

 zation. If I am right in this deduction, then I consider this to be one 

 of the best proofs that can be adduced of the life of the blood. The 

 fibrous part of the blood, in the first instance, was thrown out from the 

 inner part of the vessel, and this became organized; so that thus they 

 possessed organization within themselves. Their general appearance, with 

 their not having any thing like a peduncle, is, I think, almost a 

 positive proof that such was the case. It is, however, a matter of spe- 

 culation whether they thus had their origin or not ; but the promised 

 analysis will tend much to set the question at rest. 



" * The disease to which our attention was first directed arose from 

 derangement of the digestive organs. I told you the liver was the 

 principal seat of this affection, and the post-mortem examination also 

 bears that out. This organ is very considerably altered in its shape, 

 and parts of it appear to be in different stages of disease. When the 

 horse was in the College, both Mr Spooner and myself were of opinion 

 that there was a softening of the liver, and that haemorrhage had 

 taken place beneath the peritoneal covering, and, by forming a coagu- 

 lum, had prevented its escape into the abdominal cavity. Many 

 parts of the viscus now establish the correctness of this prognosis. The 

 peritoneal tunic is thickened, from the chronic inflammatory action 

 which has been going on in it. It shows that the symptoms, ambiguous 



