432 
SMALL- POX IN THE DOG. 
other dogs, and particularly in his brother that died some days 
before, — that about the fifth or sixth day pneumonia became com- 
plicated with, or rather constituted the principal part of, distemper. 
The lungs were then almost entirely occupied by pneumonia : aus- 
cultation enabled us to hear only a mucous and sibilant bronchial 
rale. The movements of the heart were strong, slow, and yet so 
convulsive, as to shake the whole of the body of the animal, and 
yet the pulse in various parts could scarcely be detected. The 
difficulty which the blood would find in traversing the diseased 
lungs did not appear to be sufficient to explain this phenomenon, 
and especially in an animal moribund, and whose life was nearly 
extinguished. No peculiar modification of the sensibility of the 
nerves of the heart could account for this. In order to be enabled 
to describe this muscular contraction, so sensible to the touch and 
to the eye, I examined with great care the organs of circulation 
and respiration in the dogs that presented these symptoms during 
life. In all of them I found in the cavities of the heart, and par- 
ticularly in the left ventricle, enormous clots which almost filled 
the whole of the cavities. These clots, which certainly existed 
during life, were composed of different coloured coagula. The 
part that was in contact with the walls of the cavity was of a 
grey white, but it became more coloured towards the centre, 
passing from a yellow to a rose colour, or to a red of variable in- 
tensity. I believe that the blood was physically decomposed in 
the heart during life. The outer layers of the clot were denser 
than the others, and at the centre was nothing but blood highly 
coloured. The different layers were traversed by certain bands, 
and by attachments to the valves from which they could not be 
separated without tearing the clot. Other clots of blood were 
found in the principal vascular trunks in the neighbourhood of 
the heart. 
This state of the blood, which cannot be attributed to any dis- 
ease of that fluid, well explains the violent movements connected 
with the contractions of the heart. In fact, the w r alls of the heart 
finding a resistance in its systole, in consequence of the density 
of the coagulated blood which it can no longer circulate, con- 
tract with increased energy, and the movement is communicated 
in an evident manner to all the neighbouring parts, and, ultimate- 
ly, to the whole frame. 
The coagulation of the blood before death appears to be, in 
this case, one of the principal causes of death. Besides.it alone 
is sufficient to destroy life. In order to be satisfied of this, the 
animals should be opened as soon as possible after death, that 
that may not be considered as the cause of death which is only 
the effect. 
This fact being proved, if may perhaps be useful to search for 
