370 CASK OF ABNORMAL PALPITATION OF THE HEART. 
Treatment . — I effected a new bleeding of 6 or 7 lbs. at the 
jugular, and ordered emollient injections to be frequently admi- 
nistered, and two drachms of powdered digitalis to be given in a 
linseed decoction, and to be repeated on the following morning. 
All the symptoms which I described had then lost their intensity. 
Gruel and frictions were continued during the two following days, 
when the horse had perfectly recovered, and the abnormal beat- 
ing of the flank had disappeared to regain its natural position 
in the chest. 
Some days after the cessation of these palpitations the horse 
was attacked with pneumonia, supervening on neglected bron- 
chitis. He was treated in the usual way, and perfectly re- 
covered ; and, since that period, April 1837, he has not had the 
slightest illness. 
Judging from the commotion which pervaded the whole ma- 
chine, and the state of anxiety and difficult breathing which this 
animal exhibited, it would seem that this series of symptoms, 
which seemed more alarming than they were in fact, were not 
incompatible with an organic lesion of some of the principal 
viscera. I asked myself “ Was the pericardium ruptured 1 Were 
the large vessels, and the membranes which suspended the heart, 
elongated ? Did it thus occupy the posterior extremity of the 
chest, for into the abdomen itself it certainly had never passed ? 
Were these abnormal affections produced by any of the medicines 
which I had administered — by the croton oil which was given] 
Was it a species of reaction after the derangement of the stomach 
and intestines effected by their over-distention with food ? These 
and many other questions occupied my mind, and I was still at a 
loss to explain the cause of this strange phenomenon, which I re- 
gard as unique, at least so far as I know, in the annals of veterinary 
science. Whatever was the cause, I attribute much efficacy to 
the influence of the digitalis, in gradually causing this disturbance 
to subside. 
Mem. de la Soc. Vet. da Calvados, 1837. 
ON THE USE OF CLOVER (TRIFOLIUM PRATENSE), 
AS FOOD FOR COLTS. 
By M. G. Canu, Torigny ( Manche ). 
The meadow trefoil (trifolium pratense), occupies almost the 
whole of the artificial meadows in the country which I inhabit. 
A great portion of it is eaten green, the rest is cut as hay, and 
stored in the barns as winter-food. Almost all animals eat it 
greedily, and prefer it to every other kind of food. The farmers, 
also, believing that it is the most nutritious food that can be offered 
to their cattle, give it largely to those whom they wish to fatten 
