A CASK OF CARDITIS. 
293 
ounces of castor oil administered. Pre vious to her falling she was 
observed to go with her nose near to the ground, and thus discharge 
the tarry matter. Her heart beat most violently when she was down, 
and there could be heard, the owner said, “ a sort of rustling noise 
thereabouts.” After the bleeding she had two strong fits of trem- 
bling, but the violent beating of the heart in a great measure sub- 
sided. Her respiration was not at all hurried. I was sent for, and 
arriving there about nine at night, found that she had died about 
half an hour after the master had started to fetch me. 
Post-mortem examination. — -At 6 o’clock on next morning I 
opened her. The paunch was nearly filled with masticated grass — • 
so was the second stomach. The third was full, not staked, and 
healthy. The fourth was full of fluid of a red-brown colour, and 
floating in it there Was about a handful of, to all appearance, 
rush seeds and pieces of the stalk, and the whole had a most offen- 
sive smell, inclining to a sourness. This stomach did not seem in- 
flamed, but was a little darker coloured than usual. The whole tract 
of the bowels contained a quantity of unhealthy mucus of various 
colours, and also a great deal of tarry feculent matter. In the com- 
mencement of the small intestines the contents were thinner, and 
mixed more with mucus. Further on the contents were principally 
of a blackish cast, and liquid — further on still they were inspissated, 
and had that peculiar appearance of tar, or rather of a very dark 
olive colour, and were very sticky. The mucousunembrane was 
very soft in different places, thickened a little in some parts, and in 
others streaked, dark, and discoloured, but they did not exhibit any 
marks of active inflammation. 
The liver shewed a little chronic disease, but not of much con- 
sequence. The gall bladder was full of healthy bile. 
The heart. — The pericardium contained nearly a pint of bloody 
coloured serum. On the external surface of the heart there were 
many patches of ecchymosis, and some extended into the substance 
of it ; in other places it had a peculiar freckled appearance of a 
bloody deposit. On the internal surface of each ventricle there 
were also, perhaps, thirty spots of ecchymosis. There was no blood 
in its cavities. 
The lungs were completely blanched and sound. The brain 
was sound. 
Observations. — About six weeks before another cow that stood 
next to this in the cowhouse was taken as suddenly ill. She was 
noticed to have, for a day or so, the tarry discharge in a greater de - 
gree than in the case now related. She was then sold to a butcher 
through fear of the consequence, more upon the principle that 
“ the first loss was the best” than from the general appearance of 
serious disease. 
