232 
A CASE OF ENDOCARDITIS, &c. 
formation. They were white, and confounded, and altogether 
homogeneous with the clot. 
The fibrinous tree, through its whole extent from about an 
inch of the point of adherence, was formed of concentric layers. 
There was nothing abnormal in the left cavities, except some 
ecchymoses, and a small quantity of the clot of a yellow colour, 
without any adherence. 
There was nothing remarkable in the abdominal or cranial 
cavities. 
There was no appearance of inflammation of any other lesion 
in the articulations of the humerus or the hip. 
This is a remarkable case of endocarditis. The symptoms ob- 
served during life, and the lesions apparent after death, left no 
doubt with regard to the nature of the disease. 
The most remarkable part of thi$ case is the fibrinous clot, 
which filled the right cavity of the heart and prolonged itself into 
the divisions of the pulmonary artery. This clot appears to me 
to have been formed during the life of the animal. In fact, at its 
point of adherence it offers all the characters of organization. 
The interna] membrane of the heart had there disappeared, and a 
sudden transformation of substance had occurred. 
There can be no doubt that the clot had not all at once ac- 
quired the volume which it possessed at the time of death. It 
was augmented by the successive addition of new layers. 
What could have been the cause of this affection ? Did there 
exist in this animal a rheumatic diathesis, as the two successive 
lamenesses during the progress of the disease would seem to in- 
dicate ; or, rather, was there an aneurismal state of the heart, 
which, more than any other viscus, is disposed to inflammation ? 
These questions are too obscure for me to attempt to offer a 
solution of them. 
In this curious case, one circumstance particularly appears to 
me to deserve notice ; namely, the coincidence of inflammation 
of the internal membrane of one of the cavities of the heart, 
with the peculiar articular affections which successively produced 
these consecutive lamenesses, and were also the probable cause 
of the animal constantly lying down # . This fact is of consider- 
able importance, connected with the account which M. Bouley, 
jun. has given of the development of synovial sessamoidean 
rheumatism, as a consequence of pleurisy, and which that vete- 
* M. Delalande, in the number for July 1841, p. 433, gives a singular 
account of a nearly similar affection of the heart. Too little attention has 
been paid to the diseases of this viscus. — H. B. 
