A CASK OF BLACK-AVATKR. 
131 
against it, but this colour scarcely penetrated to any depth. This 
kidney was much paler and softer than the other throughout nearly 
its whole substance. There was only a place here and there towards 
its centre that was redder and firmer; and I do believe that in a 
few days—had she lived —it would have been a mass of putridity. 
Heart .—The centre and upper part of the external surface of 
the right ventricle was studded over with many spots of ecchymosis, 
and underneath the central spots there was a tumour to be felt 
within the ventricle. On laying it open I found there was a large 
tumour, of the size of a hen’s egg, situated in the septum ventri¬ 
cular um. It did not at all project into the left ventricle, nor do I 
think it occupied above a-third of the thickness of the septum, but 
it projected into the right ventricle at least an inch and a half. It 
was about three inches long and two and a half inches wide, and 
half of its sides were covered with some fibres of the septum, but the 
point of the tumour was free from them. The membrane lining 
the cavity had a much whiter appearance than usual in some places, 
and had a bluish colour, it was also uneven. As I did not open the 
tumour (on account of preserving it), I cannot say whether it con¬ 
tained serum or an hydatid. The superior part of this tumour 
occupied the place of one of the carnese columnae, which was not at 
all now visible, but the chordae tendineae of one of the tricuspid 
valves were attached thereto. The outer wall of the ventricle, 
where the tumour must have pressed the most, was no thinner than 
the other parts. 
TTie left ventricle .—Within this cavity the eminences of the 
musculi pectinati and of the carneac columnae, and, underneath, the 
bicuspid valves, were in a great measure covered with ecchymosed 
spots, situated beneath the lining membrane, and which were very 
distinctly seen through the membrane. 
The bladder and ureters were sound. This cow was bulled 
on the 12th of August last, and I found that the foetus weighed 
2tfe 15 oz. Its stomach was distended with about an ounce of 
secretion similar to the white of an egg. 
Observations .—Although you have had a great deal in The 
Veterinarian on this subject, yet 1 thought I would send you this 
case, as 1 observed the patient particularly during life, and carefully 
examined her after death. In this instance I was well acquainted 
with the cow, as she was a neighbour’s, and 1 did just what 1 
thought proper with her. She was a most liealthy one, being a 
cross of the short-horn with the old Shropshire; her colour was bay 
and brown. Where she took on the disease was in a meadow of 
hedgerow, adjoining a small brook, and the land for a short distance 
around was generally covered with fogs at night. A few days be¬ 
fore, a rearing calf, that she had produced this spring, had black- 
water in the same field, but a little opening medicine carried off 
