CASE OF ABNORMAL PALPITATION OF THE HEART. 369 
sadly interfered with the respiration, and caused much stupidity 
and heat about the head. 
I practised a moderate bleeding, and applied an embrocation 
to the belly, composed of thirty drops of the croton oil with three 
times the quantity of brandy, continuing the injections, the fric- 
tions, and the walking exercise. 
By the bleeding — perhaps despairing of the case — I hoped 
that I might remedy or prevent the complication, possible and 
even probable, of congestion, either isolated or simultaneous, of 
the lungs, or the brain, or even of the intestines, the peristaltic 
motions of which I was endeavouring to stimulate or increase. 
The horse, that was evidently worse for a little while after the 
bleeding, did not fail to improve under this treatment at the ex- 
piration of two or three hours, and on the following day he was 
apparently out of danger. We, however, continued his gruel, 
and injections, and other remedial measures. 
Three days afterwards, when I had thought of discontinuing 
my visits, the owner sent for me again, saying that the horse was 
worse, and heaved violently at the left flank. 
When I arrived at the door of the stable, and on the left side 
of the horse, I indeed saw a singular and quick and violent 
heaving of his clothes. The whole of the vertebral column and 
particularly the head, participated in every motion. I stripped off’ 
his clothes, and was astonished at the singular and altogether 
new phenomenon which presented itself. I placed my hand on 
the flank, posterior to the last rib, and where the pulsation was 
most evident, and it was again and again beaten off’ by the force 
with which the frame was agitated. 
These tumultuous beatings were confined exclusively to the 
left flank, not having behind the elbow where the beatings of the 
heart are usually explored any thing but a somewhat more direct 
echo of the movement that was impressed on every part of the 
frame. Neither by hand nor my ear could I detect the presence 
of this viscus in the situation which nature had allotted to it in 
the thorax ; but at the flank it was fearfully palpable. One 
would have said that the heart, deprived of its envelopes, the 
natural bonds which retained it in its position, and, in a word, 
having burst from all its connexions, had found its way through 
the diaphragm, and placed itself in the abdomen, on the inside 
of the left flank. 
The symptoms which accompanied this phenomenon were 
loathing of food — depression of spirits — a mouth dry, hot, and 
exhaling the odour of imperfectly digested food — the conjuntiva 
rather red than pale — the pulse 60 in a minute, isochronous with 
the beatings of the flank, well developed and regular — the flanks 
a little more flexible than on the preceding evening — the coat 
smooth, and the animal walking a little way with apparent case. 
