14 PLEURISY— RHEUMATIC INFLAMMATION, &C. 
into the chest. To ascertain this I examined her chest by ausculta- 
tion. Hearing distinctly, however, at every part the respiratory or 
bronchial murmur, I relinquished this notion, and thought there 
might be effusion into the cavity of the belly. Of this, however, 
I possessed no assured evidence, the belly not appearing larger 
than natural. While in this state of doubt and uncertainty as to 
the perfect nature of her case, 
On the morning of the 20th Nov. the mare was found 
dead in her box : she having, as it would appear from the posture 
in which she was lying, and the undisturbed state of her bed, fallen 
and died suddenly, without a struggle, some time in the course of 
the night. 
Post-mortem. 
PLEURA, everywhere covered with multitudinous meshes of red 
vessels, having that dull red hue which denotes inflammatory action 
to be on the decline, or rather to have terminated in congestion. 
On the near side of the thorax were several strong adhesions of 
the lung to the side. No water was found in either cavity of the 
thorax. 
LUNGS, sound, and of their natural variegated pink hue. 
Heart, strikingly large, filling its sac to that degree, that, 
apparently, no room was left for it to beat. Its ventricular cavities 
were full of blood, and were evidently, in particular the right, 
anormally large and capacious. There was blood also in the 
auricles, but their cavities were rather flaccid than distended. 
When cleansed of its blood, the heart weighed 7^ lbs. : this was no 
great weight; and yet, when the slender make of the mare came to 
be considered, it was anormally large for her. It was a case, in 
fact, of hypertrophy WITH DILATATION. There was no sign of 
disease in the tissue of the heart. 
The ABDOMEN contained several quarts of serous fluid, of 
the lightest possible straw colour, perfectly limpid, and odourless. 
The quantity was not sufficient to be likely to occasion any dis- 
turbance or inconvenience. The addition of nitric acid immediately 
clouded it; heat did the same. 
The leg last attacked with lameness was examined. 
The fetlock joint was quite healthy, as were the tendons and 
ligaments in its immediate vicinity and above it. The only part 
diseased was the bed of cellular tissue interposed between the 
flexor perforans tendon and the long sesamoid ligament, at the back 
of the pastern bone. This tissue shewed violent inflammation, 
the dulness of their red colour and the want of full distention of 
the vessels indicating that the inflammatory action was there 
likewise on the decline. 
