ON DISEASES OF THE HEART. 
25 
in the science of our art: the oldest among us has much to learn ; 
and experience in practice is continually bringing before us many 
diseases in the horse, and in cattle, with which we are expected 
by our employers to be quite conversant, and of which no mention 
is made at our alma-mater. Is it not, then, of the greatest im¬ 
portance for the improvement, and, I may say, the respectability 
of our profession, that we commune with each other as often as 
these cases occur ? It is my opinion that w'e should; and, there¬ 
fore, I proceed to contribute a morsel for the first number of 
the sixth volume. 
Diseases of the heart, in the human subject, appear to have 
increased of late years, either from change in habit, external 
agency, or from medical men having studied more the pathology 
of that organ. The latter I consider the most probable cause. 
We hear but little of disease in the heart of the horse ; but, from 
my own experience, I find disease of that organ not of such un¬ 
frequent occurrence as we might expect from the silence of au¬ 
thors and practitioners on the subject. Carditis is of rare occur¬ 
rence in the horse, as a primary disease. Inflammation of the 
heart is generally symptomatic, consequent on continued consti¬ 
tutional irritation ; and for this reason we commonly suspect some 
other organ to be the seat of mischief when symptoms of dis¬ 
turbance in the heart are sufficiently perceptible, after we have 
been once taught to recognize them, 
^ O O ^ • 
The affections of the organ to which I am about more especi¬ 
ally to direct the attention of my readers, are hypertrophy, dila¬ 
tation, and hydro-pericarditis. Ossification I believe to be very 
rare in the horse ; and this is somewhat remarkable, when we 
consider how prone the bones and cartilages are to this affection. 
In the human subject the case is reversed; for ossification of 
cartilage and bone is comparatively rare, while the orifices of the 
heart and the coats of the arteries are frequently thus diseased. 
It is highly important that we should be well informed with 
regard to the symptoms of these several diseases in the heart of 
the horse. Being of unfrequent occurrence, when they do pre¬ 
sent themselves, they are a test of our experience and judgment. 
The rarity of these diseases is known only to ourselves ; our 
employers in these cases, as in others, expect a prompt de¬ 
cision. 
In the generality of the cases which come to the knowledge 
of the veterinary surgeon, the incipient stage of the disease is 
passed ; the work of destruction is nearly completed : the animal 
is about to close the period of his existence, and but trifling in¬ 
formation, as to the history of the case, can be gleaned from the 
parties to whom the horse belongs. The case is generally a 
VOL. VI, D 
