RUPTURE OF THE HEART OF A DOG. 
87 
milk, but also to hasten the separation of cream, so that 
they may be able to obtain some from the milk before it is 
sent out to be sold. Thus this most important article of 
diet is impoverished, not only by keeping the cows in an 
unhealthy state, but by the addition of water and removal of 
cream .” — Medical Times. 
RUPTURE OF THE HEART OF A DOG, CONTAINING FILARLE. 
At a recent meeting of the New York Pathological Society , 
Dr. W. C. Livingston presented the heart of a Newfoundland 
dog, supposed to have been killed by leaping from a window 
in the fourth story of the building in which he was usually 
kept. He was found early one morning, on the walk 
directly opposite, dead. As he was always regarded a healthy 
and a remarkably intelligent animal, no reason could be 
assigned for his suicidal leap. 
The body bore no external marks of injury, save a slight 
escape of blood from the mouth. Upon taking off his hide, 
a contusion was revealed upon his left haunch, such as 
might readily be caused by a fall from such a height. The 
brain and medulla spinalis were quite healthy, as were also 
all the abdominal organs, save a number of recent superficial 
lacerations seen in different portions of the liver. 
On opening the thorax, the right pleuro-cardial septum 
was found broken down, a large clot filling the pericardium, 
and about two quarts (more or less) of fluid occupying the 
right pleural cavity. Upon carefully raising the clot from 
its position, a laceration was discovered in the walls of the 
right auricle, on its anterior aspect, about an inch in length, 
with jagged and very irregular margins, through which 
protruded portions of three or four filamentary worms, 
resembling very closely the “gut” of the silkworm used by 
anglers. The heart was now separated from its connections 
and carefully examined, when ten of these parasites, varying 
in length from six to ten and a half inches, and about a third 
of a line in diameter, were found to occupy the right auricle 
and ventricle, and a single specimen was found in the 
pulmonary artery. 
Professor Dalton, who very kindly examined the specimen, 
with the view of determining its characteristics and zoological 
position, considers it a hitherto undescribed species of 
Spiropterae. He (Professor Dalton) exhibited to the society the 
genital organs of the male, as seen under the microscope, 
showing the two penes and convoluted testes surrounding the 
straight intestinal tube. He also remarked that the sexes 
