604 
THE CONTRIBUTORS. 
of disease of the heart, from an irregularity in its systole and 
diastole. How few of us are so well taught as at once to detect 
a morbid lesion like this in the central organ of circulation ! 
How few who have accustomed themselves to the examination of 
the different sounds of the heart! We owe a great deal to our 
deceased friend, Mr. John Field, for directing our attention to 
this new species of veterinary examination. The present writer 
will not soon forget the ardour with which this ornament of his 
profession maintained the possibility of the existence of polypi 
or other tumours on the heart, and especially when they arose 
from or were connected with some inflammatory state of the 
organ, and this probably existed in the case which Mr. Mather 
relates. 
We will not enter into the question whether this abnormal 
structure arose from the heart being diseased, along with other 
organs, in repeated attacks of influenza, and that it may then 
be possible that the epidemic which has lately prevailed consists 
chiefly of a disease of the heart. We have not at present suffi- 
cient data on which to form our opinion, but we cordially thank 
Mr. Mather for this interesting paper, and lament that the use of 
the stethescope during the life of the animal, and the examina- 
tion of the vital organs after death, are so much neglected. 
We now arrive at a very important paper, on the Epizootic 
among Cattle in 1840, by Mr. Hutchinson. He gives a rapid 
sketch of more than 200 cattle which came under his care from 
July to December in that year, and follows this up with a reply 
to the various questions I presumed to put to many of the pro- 
fession during that epidemic. His paper is here selected for the 
kindness with which he replied to a variety of interrogatories ; 
but it is only one of a great number of other documents most 
truly valuable, and which the compiler can never forget. 
Some most important documents now present themselves. 
Another epidemic, essentially different from the former, has 
made its appearance, and its ravages are dreadful. In the neigh- 
bourhood of the metropolis more than 400 deaths have occurred : 
the writer would hardly exaggerate if he said that nearly twice 
that number have either been destroyed by the disease or killed 
and sent to the butcher before the meat was deteriorated. In its 
