240 OSSIFICATION, &c. OF THE HEART. 
that the ventricles dilate. It was thus, at least, that the circu- 
lation was kept up in this animal. It is much to be regretted 
that this organic lesion had not been suspected during the life 
of the patient, and that auscultation had not been resorted to. 
It may be presumed that this mode of exploration would have 
detected certain peculiar symptoms which might have thrown 
some light on the semeiology of these affections in the horse. 
The peculiar difficulty of breathing which this animal evinced, 
did it depend on the chronic affection of the lungs or the organic 
lesion of the heart, or is it to be attributed to the joint influence 
of both ? Which of these affections is developed first ? It is 
difficult or impossible to resolve questions otherwise of little im- 
portance. We will content ourselves with saying that we are 
disposed to believe that the affection of the heart preceded that 
of the lungs, and even contributed to the development of it. 
The complete ossification of the auricle, and especially the thick- 
ness which its walls had acquired, would authorise us in con- 
cluding this to be the case. 
This specimen, the most complete of its kind that veterinary 
medicine possesses, is so much the more remarkable as being pro- 
cured from a horse between five and six years old, a time of life 
when these ossifications are not frequent. 
Diseases of the heart are rare in our domestic animals. The 
venerable Girard, so long a time professor of anatomy at Alfort, 
and M. Rigot, his worthy successor, never met with more than 
one case similar to that we have described, amidst the numerous 
animals that were destroyed under their inspection in the space of 
forty years. 
Hurtrel d’Arboval makes no mention of the diseases of the heart 
in the first edition of his work, and very slightly mentions them 
in the second edition, candidly confessing that he is unable to 
present a satisfactory history of them. Messrs. Renault, Bar- 
thelemy, sen., and Riquet, have since recorded some bony affec- 
tions of this all-important organ, but we have yet much to learn 
on this subject. 
Rec. de Med . Vet., Sept. 1840. 
The following Gentlemen obtained their Diplomas 
at the Examination which took place on 
March 1 7th, 1841. 
Mr. William Wardle, Mortlake, Surrey. 
— Charles Morgan, Ross, Hereford. 
— Robert Heffer, Parham, Suffolk. 
— Charles Croxford, Wendover, Bucks. 
