15 
Reflections . 
I cannot help thinking there is a striking analogy between the 
present case and one 1 published in the year 1846, in vol. xix of 
The VETERINARIAN. In both cases there was primary membranous 
inflammation within the chest ; there was erratic or rheumatic 
lameness ; and there was disease of heart, causing death suddenly. 
Still, there exist differences ; some reconcileable, others not appa- 
rently so. That the thoracic inflammation in the case before us 
should be exclusively confined to the pleura, while in the former 
case it was visceral as well as membranous, seems no great matter 
in our rationale. But, that the lameness which, in the former case, 
was found to arise from inflammation of the synovial membrane of 
a joint and effusion of lymph into its cavity, should in the present 
one prove to have had its origin in inflammation of cellular tissue 
interposed between tendon and ligament, somewhat, perhaps, dis- 
turbs the analogy. More than by this, however, is the analogy 
lessened, when we come to make the comparison between the 
disease of heart in one case and in the other. There can be no 
analogy, one would think, between disease of the semi-lunar valves 
and hypertrophy with dilatation. The only question for us to ask 
ourselves appears to be, can one and the other disease of heart be 
regarded as the same consecutive link in the chain of causation ? 
If so, then is one case still analogous to the other. 
For the present, I would rather leave the subject here than 
pursue it further. A good deal more might be said about the 
case. Something might be thrown out to account for the dropsy, 
internal as well as external. I would, however, for my own 
part, I repeat, rather await the recurrence of similar cases, than 
venture upon the wings of theorization. I cannot help suspecting 
that diseases of the heart, in fatal cases which pass off as “ in- 
flammation of the lungs,” are too often overlooked, and that the 
fault is, consequently, thrown upon the lungs — upon the practi- 
tioner perhaps — when all the while, had the heart been inspected, 
the mark of death’s arrow would have been plain and visible 
enough. Mr. Pritchard, the well known skilful veterinary surgeon 
of Wolverhampton, was the first to call my attention to the subject 
of cardiac disease in the horse, through some admirable papers on 
the subject he published in the years 1833-4, in The VETERINARIAN 
(vols. vi and vii); from which time I have rarely, if ever, failed, in 
cases said or thought to be pulmonary, to examine the heart, and 
with a great deal more attention than I had been in the habit of 
ever doing before ; and the result to me has been highly satisfactory. 
