General Diseases. 365 
playing one day with another dog, she fell and expired im- 
mediately. 
“The post-mortem examination was made two hours 
after death. The cavity of the pericardium contained a 
red clot of blood, which enveloped the whole of the heart ; 
it was thicker in the parts that corresponded with the valve 
of the heart; and on the left ventricle, and near the base 
of the left valve of the heart, as well as the external part 
of that viscus, was an irregular rent two inches long. It 
crossed the valve of the heart, which was very thin in this 
place. The size of the heart was very small, considering 
the height and bulk of the dog. The walls of the ventricles, 
and particularly of the left ventricle, were very thick. The 
cavity of the left ventricle was very small; there was 
evidently a concentric hypertrophy of these ventricles; 
the valve of the heart was of great size. 
_ “The immediate cause of the rupture of the valve of the 
heart had evidently been an increase of circulation, brought 
on by an increase of exercise ; but the remote cause con- 
sisted in the remarkable thinness of the valve of the heart. 
“This case is remarkable in more than one respect: 
first, because instances of rupture of the valve of the heart 
are very rare ; and, secondly, because this rupture had its 
seat in the left valve of the heart, while usually, in both 
the human being and the quadruped, it takes place in the . 
right, and this without doubt because the walls and the 
valves of the right side are thinner.”* 
PERICARDITIS. 
Inflammation of the pericardium of heart sac is a disease, 
comparatively speaking, not very frequently seen, or, at all - 
events, diagnosed in the canine species. 
Pericarditis, when not the result of direct injury from 
crushing or penetrating wounds, is msually associated 
with acute rheumatism, pleurisy, or pyzemia. 
* Youatt on ‘The Dog.” 
