RIGHT VENTRICLE OF THE HEART. 659 
bearing a considerable resemblance to these were produced by 
worms in the digestive canal. This treatment was continued 
during fifteen days. I had an account of the horse every two 
days, and I began to conceive some hope, when I was informed 
that lie had died immediately after one of these attacks. I then 
proceeded without delay to Clairvaux, and instituted a post 
mortem examination with all possible care. 
The abdominal viscera presented nothing unusual; and in the 
thoracic cavity the lungs and the pleurae were healthy, but under 
the serous capsule of the lungs were small spots of ecchymosis, 
which I attributed to the convulsions under which the animal 
laboured before death. I then took these organs from the chest 
to examine the pericardium, which was distended by e great 
quantity of fluid. I cautiously cut into it: the serous fluid 
which ran from it was mixed with fibrous clots of a red colour, 
more or less deep. The envelope which constituted the pericar¬ 
dium was very thin, and distended in the form of a pouch at its 
lower part on the right side; and on the internal surface of the 
pericardic bag, and where it was thinnest, were several brown 
patches. 
In order the more easily to examine the heart, I detached it, 
and drew it from the chest without wounding it. The ap¬ 
pearance of the reflexion of the membrane by which it was 
covered was natural; but on regarding it attentively, I perceived 
about the middle of the right ventricle a little fistulous opening, 
one or two lines in length, with rounded edges, and through 
which there appeared to issue a fluid lightly coloured with blood. 
Round the circumference of this opening, and, half an inch wide, 
was a light puffiness or enlargement, of a white colour. A probe 
penetrated into the ventricle without resistance. To determine 
whether the fistula was as large on the inside as the outside, I 
made an incision through the right ventricle from the top to the 
bottom, leaving the injured wall of the ventricle on one side, and 
the septum on the other; when I remarked along the internal 
surface of the wall a longitudinal rent, extending an inch and a 
half from above below, penetrating into the thickest part of the 
wall, and diminishing in size until it arrived at the middle of the 
muscle, and terminating in the fistula, of which I have described 
the external opening. 
Persuaded that this was the cause of all the symptoms ob¬ 
served during the life of the animal, I did not think there was 
occasion to open the cavities containing the centre of the nervous 
system. 
liecueil de Mtd. Vet. Mai 1831. 
We confess that we do not quite share in this persuasion, and 
regret that the examination was not further pursued.— Edit. 
