PERICARDITIS IN A COW. 
433 
quantity of water. The whole of the viscera healthy excepting the 
heart, which was in a singular state from, as I consider, a deposition 
of coagulable lymph over the whole surface. The pericardium was 
inflamed, and quite full of a yellow fluid in every respect like oil. 
*# # We look upon the above interesting case as one of metas- 
tasis. Unusual excitement was aroused in the system, and for 
an undue time kept up in it by the severity and protractedness of 
the labour. This febrile excitement would probably have got 
vent through the natural secretion of the udder, had not inflamma- 
tion there put a stop to it. The consequence was repulsion upon 
the heart. Or, was it that the cow took cold which produced this ] 
The inflammation, in its results, had very much the character of what 
we call rheumatic inflammation. Mr. Simmons has kindly sent 
us the heart for inspection, and a more strange-looking production, 
as well as beautiful specimen of disease, it has never been our lot 
to behold. The following is our own account of it : — 
The heart is uniformly coated with a substance which, in ge- 
neral aspect and disposition, being made up of layer over layer, 
and in the sensation it gives to the feel, resembles, save in colour, 
more than any thing we can compare it to, what is called the dead 
mans flesh of a lobster; though in colour, being of a very light 
pinkish hue, it is more like so much soft fat, spread in masses one 
upon the other over the surface of the heart. Although it exhibits 
considerable firmness and solidity when cut with the knife, yet has 
it not much toughness, being easily rendible when torn by the 
fingers. Were it not for the space in which a crown-piece might 
lie around the apex of the left venticle, and the localities around 
the summits of the auricles, bordering on the roots of the large 
bloodvessels, this adventitious covering to the heart might be 
said to be complete , every other part of the organ being concealed 
by it. It is most abundant around the middle or largest circum- 
ference of the heart, being in many places thereabouts an inch or 
more in thickness; from which parts, both upwards and down- 
wards, it diminishes in thickness. When cut into, the substance 
exhibits no mark or trace whatever of vascularity — apparently, 
indeed, is wholly inorganic, seeming to be, as no doubt it is, the 
result of effusion from acut e pericarditis. The muscular substance 
of the heart underneath it appears less red (of a pink hue) and 
fibrous than usual, and is softer in consistence and finer in texture, 
as though it had been much encumbered in its action by the 
burthen everywhere imposed upon it. The membrane lining the 
cavities of the heart manifest no other change than heightened 
uniform redness. The valves preserve their normal structure. 
Taking the heart altogether, as it presents itself to view, we can 
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