4-34 OBSERVATIONS ON SOME DISEASES OF THE HEART. 
is to say, the primitive and not the complicated disease, has not 
yet been described in a tangible manner as it exists in the quad- 
ruped ; and no one has yet recognised the true pathognomonic 
symptoms of it in them. This malady often exists in connexion 
with pericarditis, and from which we are not yet able to dis- 
tinguish it. It is often confounded with pneumonia, and is 
sometimes accompanied by diseases of other viscera of the thorax. 
When carditis can be recognised in the living animal, the prog- 
nosis is always fatal ; for the heart is charged with one of the 
most important functions, the execution of which cannot be ef- 
fectually accomplished when there is any considerable disorgan- 
ization. It would be superfluous to seek for the causes, the mode 
of termination, and the principles which ought to direct the treat- 
ment of a disease so rare, so little known, so little understood, 
and which has never yet been recognised during life. As to pe- 
ricarditis, it is as little known among animals as carditis. We 
are aware that one or the other may, and frequently does, exist ; 
but we cannot predicate the appearances which will present 
themselves after death. ” 
M. Delalande then quotes the opinions of Collin, Desvilliers, 
and Corvisart. They all agree in the belief that it is impossible 
to distinguish carditis from pericarditis, or to say what is the na- 
ture or extent of the complication of these maladies, or which is 
usually the primitive disease. We (the Editor) pass over the im- 
perfect history given by these gentlemen, and the sum of their 
inquiries and supposed discoveries, because the application of 
auscultation has enabled us, in many an instance, to detect the 
seat of the disease, and, in a certain number of cases, to be of 
good service to the patient. We are now engaged in inquiries of 
this nature, the result of which we will, at some future period, 
lay before our readers. We proceed to the cases which have 
come under this gentleman's observation. 
I. — “ I was sent for," says he, “ on May the 20th, 1835, to see 
a milch cow, four months and a half gone with calf, and in high 
condition. The following were the symptoms exhibited: — the 
respiration precipitate, the expiration being cut short by a sud- 
den convulsive contraction. There was occasional cough, pain- 
ful, and very feeble — the pulse was small, wiry, unequal and irre- 
gular — no appetite — the skin very cold, dry, and adherent to the 
cellular substance beneath : occasionally she uttered plaintive 
lowings, which were evidently more acute when the hand was 
placed on the loins or the shoulders, or when she was forced to 
change her position. There were wavy contractions of the skin 
from before backwards, with a convulsive motion, as if she were 
ridding herself of the flies — the eye sometimes bright and spark- 
ling, and presently afterwards having a mournful expression — 
