218 BOVINE PATHOLOGY. 



a peduncle o£ fibrous or fibro-cellular tissue. Sometimes 

 the tumour is gritty in parts. These polypi may cause 

 sudden death, in other cases the action of the heart 

 is irregular and intermittent, and there is gradually 

 increasing debility leading to paraplegia before the animal 

 dies.^ 



Gamgee alludes to melanosis and cancerous infiltration 

 of the heart in domesticated animals, and mentions a 

 specimen which he saw in the Bologna Museum, consisting 

 of a large mass of echinococcus cysts hanging from the 

 apex of the heart. Cysticercus tenuicollis has been met 

 with in the pericardial cavity, Cysticercus hovis and 

 Trichina invade this as well as other muscles. The same 

 author makes the following valuable remarks on this 

 subject. ^'The temperament, habits, and manner of 

 keeping cows tied up in a stall, lead to the observation of 

 cases in these animals which would give rise to symptoms 

 at a comparatively early period in the hard-worked horse. 

 With regard to external tumours, their weight is some- 

 times very great, and, when connected with the apex, 

 they may attain a size far exceeding that of the heart itself, 

 without inducing very serious symptoms. This is not the 

 case when the deposits invade the base of the heart, where 

 they obstruct the vessels and arrest the circulation." 



Professor Walleyes valuable paper on '^ Hasmatomata 

 and Thrombi, or ante-mortem Clots,'' in the ' Veterinary 

 Journal ' for July, 1877, may be consulted with benefit in 

 this relation. He attributes the ante-mortem clots, among 

 other things, to elevation or injury of the endocardium by 

 foreign bodies penetrating from the stomach, or by the 

 lodgment of entozoa beneath it. 



Rupture op the Heaet sometimes causes sudden death. 

 Atrophy of the organ and pulmonary disease predispose 

 to this, and it is most liable to occur in working oxen, as 

 it results from violent efforts or from blows. It is, how- 

 ever, very rare in the cattle. The right auricle most 

 readily gives way. 



See case recorded by Messrs. Houlden and Varnell (' Veterinarian/ 

 vol. xxxix, p. 975). Emboli were found in the heart, spleen, and kidneys. 



