80 
ON THE DISEASES OF THE HEART. 
Bj/ Mr, Pritchard, Wolverhampton, 
No. II. 
Dilatation of the Heart, 
In continuing my observations on diseases of the heart, 
I shall proceed, without commenting on the several cases which 
I purpose to lay before your readers, until the series of them is 
concluded. 
I now beg leave to detail one of dilatation of both 
SIDES OF THE HEART. The subject of this case was a good 
sort of three-parts-bred mare, six years old, fifteen hands and 
a half high, purchased by Mr. Edward Tandy, a respectable 
dealer in this neighbourhood, at a horse fair in North Wales, iii 
the beginning of 1832. I was requested to examine her on the 
12th of July, for a gentleman who had recently purchased her 
from Mr. Tandy, for she was falling away in flesh, and was 
suspected to have been unsound at the time of purchase. 
I found her poor and lean on the rib; her belly large ; and 
she had an unhealthy looking coat. She was running in a good 
pasture with other horses, where she had been several weeks, 
with a view of improving her condition, or rather to get her 
more flesh on her bones; but she continued to lose instead 
of gaining, notwithstanding that she appeared to feed tolerably 
well, and was somewhat lively. Mr. Tandy informed me she 
was rather thin when he bought her, but had appeared during 
the time she was in his hands, some three to four months, quite 
well, fed heartily, and worked regularly at gentle work, such as 
•ploughing upon his farm, but that she did not thrive and grow 
with the meat that he gave her so much as he expected her to 
do ; and that, if she stood in the stable a day or two, her legs 
swelled a little. While in the hands of the gentleman who 
purchased her from Mr. T., she had only done one twelve miles 
in harness, in consequence of her legs swelling, and oedematous 
swellings along the under surface of the belly occasionally ap¬ 
pearing. I found her pulse eighty-four, rather hard and regular. 
The impulse of the heart indicated a change in its structure, by 
a loud and sonorous stroke, recognized on the right side of the 
chest nearly as forcibly as on the left. Its beating was regular ; 
but an unnatural rythm, a throbbing palpitation, accompanied 
the stroke. The blood in the jugular veins met with considera¬ 
ble impediment. The slight regurgitation observed in these 
vessels at the bottom of the neck, in horses in health, was in 
