DROPSY OF THE PERICARDIUM. 
•2:37 
shivering: I jumped to the conclusion that this was an attack of 
inflamed lungs, and accordingly I bled, &c.; from which treatment 
these symptoms quickly disappeared, when I thought all would be 
well; indeed, my patient was considered by her owner, as well as 
myself, almost recovered, ouly that her appetite did not quite re¬ 
turn. A day or two passed, when I was again called in, from the 
mare having another shivering fit. When I reached her, the ri¬ 
gor had left her; her breathing was good, the extremities warm, 
the pulse little affected as regards frequency and quality; and all 
that I could collect to make me consider her ailing w as her listless 
appearance and delicate appetite. You will perceive the case 
presented no tangible symptoms, no leading sign; in fact, the case, 
as I thought, wore a very obscure aspect. However, for all this, 
I asked myself the question. What is the matter with this mare 1 
My answer to myself, and which would have been the same to my 
employer if asked, was, I do not know. Now, this was just such 
a situation as most practitioners, some time or other, are placed 
in. I felt mortified at my position, and from thence I summed up 
the determination not to let the matter rest until I had discovered 
the disease. Accordingly, I examined my patient in every possi¬ 
ble way, which occupied me a full hour. At last I w^as equally 
particular in my examination of the pulse; not by keeping my finger, 
as is usual, for half a minute or so, but for two minutes at a time 
on it, when I felt it intermit. This became more evident, as the 
mare got more reconciled to my standing by her for some little 
time quietly. I examined her afterwards, and still the intermitting 
pulse continued. Now, the difficulty, I thought to myself, is at 
an end. When I found the heart and artery pausing every few 
beats, I gave it, at once, as my opinion, that the mare’s malady 
we.s dropsy of the heart. Her owner directly sent for Mr. S., a 
highly respectable surgeon of the town: 1 met him, he examined 
her, and found the pulse intermitting, but w^as inclined to think 
that it arose from nervous influence more than the effect of effu¬ 
sion into the pericardium. 1 well knew the horse was not much 
the subject of nervous affections ; and therefore, as I was from the 
first strongly impressed that the pausing of the heart and artery 
arose from something interrupting their action, and that it must be 
water, 1 stuck to my opinion. 
The mare died on the eleventh day, and my judgment was cor¬ 
rect ; for, upon examination of the body, the pericardium was dis¬ 
tended to bursting; no less than three quarts of fluid escaped. No 
other disease was to be found; and the only thing that could be 
observed was the paleness of the liver. It was of a mortar colour, 
which is always the case when horses die of dropsy of the pericar- 
VOL. xm. I i 
