450 DISEASES OF THE CIRCULATOBY SYSTEM. 



by an overtaxed heart remarkable results are sometimes obtained.. 

 In the use of iodide of potassium in diseases of the heart, I have 

 always administered it combined with digitalis, nux vomica, and 

 coca in small doses, using the powdered drug. The dose of iodide 

 of potassium for the horse is from 4 to 8 grammes daily and propor- 

 tionate doses for other animals. Iodine may also be used in these 

 cases in doses of from 0.50 to 1 gramme daily in the food. — w. L. z.] 



PERICARDITIS. 



Inflammation of the pericardium is a frequent disease in the ox, 

 whilst it is very rare in the horse and other animals.^ Pericarditis 

 of the ox is clearly characterized by its quite special nature, by its 

 causes, which are of a traumatic kind ; finally, by its ordinary com- 

 plication of myocarditis, which helps to modify its symptomatic 

 expression. In the goat we have also observed a few cases of trau- 

 matic pericarditis, while in subjects of our other species this disease 

 is recognized by internal causes. For reasons of an etiological, 

 clinical, anatomical, and therapeutic nature, it is proper to examine 

 in a special article the pericarditis of the ox and that of the goat. 



1. Pericarditis of the Ox and Goat : Traumatic Pericarditis 



and Carditis. 



Etiolog-y. Traumatic cardo-pericarditis is by far the most fre- 

 quent of the cardiac diseases of the ox. We may, indeed, question 

 whether any pericarditis occurs in this animal which is not of a 

 traumatic nature. A priori we must answer in the affirmative, for 

 nothing prevents inflammation of the pericardium developing in the 

 ox (as in the horse) after colds, during muscular or acute articular 

 rheumatism, infectious diseases, puerperal septicemia, pleurisy, etc. 

 Authors have incriminated all these causes at the same time as trau- 

 matism. In studying the reported observations, however, we are 

 tempted to believe that most of the cases claimed to be rheumatismal 



1 Pericarditis is frequent in birds. According to its nature and age the alterations 

 produced by it are very variable. When it is recent the pericardium is greatly con- 

 gested, unpolished, rough ; at a more advanced period its folds are covered by a 

 whitish deposit, of chalky appearance (rheumatismal pericarditis), or joined by in- 

 flammatory adhesions for the greater part of the surface; in certain cases we find an 

 abundant liquid collection in it. Sometimes the birds which are affected die quite 

 suddenly, at other times they waste away and die of consumption (see Larcherr 

 Mélanges de Pathologie comparée). — n. d. t. 



