196 
EXTRA-UTERINE GESTATION. 
but there was protruding through the auriculo-ventricular 
opening a substance that at first sight might be mistaken for 
coagulated blood. On attempting to withdraw it I detached 
a small portion, which had something of a fungoid character. 
On cutting open the left ventricle, its superior part seemed 
quite filled with this same morbid growth. It appeared to 
have originated in the bicuspid valves, whose true character 
was completely lost, as was also that of most of the chordae 
tendineae, still I could distinctly trace one or two of these 
bands into this substance. I should imagine that, during 
the latter period of the animaPs life, at each contraction 
of the ventricle, as much blood would pass back into the 
auricle as could possibly have gone into the aorta. I found 
also that the semilunar valves at the mouth of the aorta were 
diseased, but to nothing like the same extent as tricuspid. 
The valves of the veins throughout were healthy, but on 
laying open the posterior aorta I w r as surprised to find, close 
to its bifurcation into external and internal iliacs, a portion 
of the same abnormal growth of nearly the size of a large 
acorn, which had evidently been detached from the valves of 
the heart and been carried to this place by the circulating- 
current. The substance itself was irregular in its general 
aspect* and in places its structure was hardened, with slight 
ossific deposit ; in other respects it had more the character 
of a fungoid growth of somewhat rapid development. I may 
add that the patient had been attended by a farrier in the 
neighbourhood, who was completely at a loss to account for 
the animaPs illness, and who had been giving sedative and 
febrifuge medicine, but of course with no benefit. 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO VETERINARY MEDICINE 
AND SURGERY. 
By J. G. Dickinson, M.R.C.V.S., Boston. 
It would not be consistent for me to offer a series of 
contributions to veterinary medicine and surgery, unless I 
really felt that every individual belonging to the profession 
should do his best to advance it. 
I might have easily selected twenty or thirty cases from 
my note book, and have drawn them up in a more or less 
cursory manner ; but it is rather my object so to produce 
them that they may not turn out to be an unconnected mass of 
facts, from which no conclusions can be drawn. This, then, 
