DISEASE OF THE HEART OF A HORSE. 
3 
more like, in fact they were, the vibrations of an elastic tube 
which by some internal force had become suddenly filled to disten- 
tion, even to coiling and actual saltation out of its place, and as 
suddenly emptied again. At this moment the thought entered my 
mind that I had a case of disease of the heart ; and in this opinion 
I was confirmed when I applied my ear to the left side of the 
thorax and found the heart thumping the ribs in a manner I had 
no recollection of having heard before. The impulse was both for- 
cible and distinct, could be heard on the right as well as on the 
left side, indeed through almost any part of the parietes of the 
thorax, and in the intervals when it was not heard there was a 
tumultuous sort of sound, destroying the rythm of the heart’s actions, 
very different from the double beat and interval of silence conveyed 
to the ear in a state of health. The regurgitation of blood into the 
jugular veins was palpable enough; at the same time it was evident 
from the extraordinary sounds of commotion heard everywhere in 
the region of the heart, that cardiac disease of some kind or another 
was the nature of the mare’s complaint. That it was not pulmon- 
ary was argued (setting aside the unnatural action of the heart) 
from the circumstance of its being only at times that her respiration 
became disturbed : on such occasions her flanks were seen heaving, 
her nostrils opening and closing : this, however, lasted but a short 
while, all again soon became tranquil, and she stood once more 
breathing as freely and as calmly as a horse in health. 
The disease having been so far made out, it was deemed ad- 
visable to bleed her again ; also to put blisters upon her sides, 
and to give her some febrifuge and sedative medicine. She bore 
the second loss of blood as well, and the blood proved as redun- 
dant of crassamentum, and the coagulum as firm and tough as on 
the former occasion. She had shewn some tumefaction in the 
legs from the first; but at this time her oedema was becoming a 
more prominent symptom. Walking exercise having been of 
late forbidden, both on account of the presumed nature of the 
disease, and because the mare was now evidently falling away in 
flesh and losing her strength, notwithstanding her appetite held 
good, and that she took her rest, lying down a good deal and 
seeming while she was lying to be easy and comfortable. The 
mare, notwithstanding, now rapidly declined, daily looking more 
and more like a phthisical subject, drooping in her spirits and be- 
coming fastidious in her appetite. Carrots were got for her, and 
these for a couple of days she ate with evident enjoyment. No 
fresh symptoms presented themselves until the time of her death, 
which happened on the 25th of October, she standing up the last 
day to the moment of her falling and being seized with convulsions, 
in which she died. 
