142 A PIN FOUND IN THE HEART OF A COW. 
except that I could catch a kind of clicking sound now and 
then, which I thought was produced by the agitation of fluid 
and not from the heart's pulsation. The jugular veins were 
full, and felt like a cord. A swelling at the breast from 
effusion of serum had taken place, also under the tongue, 
between the jaws, and in front of the cheek extending 
along the neck. One knee was likewise similarly affected. 
As her owner was anxious that I should still continue treat¬ 
ment, two more doses of medicine were sent. 
I called again on Christmas day, and recommended that 
she should be destroyed, and asked them to let me know 
when this was done. Not hearing anything for a few days, 
and fearing they had put her away without telling me, I 
called again on the 30th. She was now purging, and com¬ 
pletely emaciated. The infiltrations had gone on increasing- 
in size, and she had not lain down during the last eight or 
nine days. All was silent at the heart, both at the front and 
sides of the chest, and no pulsation could be detected at the 
jaw. The jugular veins also were larger. 
January 1st.—I w r as requested to be at the farm by 11 
o’clock in order to see her destroyed. Before my arrival, 
however, as the cow could not move out of the place she was 
in, they pulled her out with a horse, and she died in the act 
of being moved. 
Post-mortem examination .—On laying open the abdominal 
cavity, about a couple of gallons of straw-coloured fluid 
escaped. The stomach was adherent to the peritoneum in 
one place on the left side, over a small extent of surface, as 
though the rumen might have been punctured for hoven at 
some time or the other, but as the cow had been reared on the 
farm such w 7 as knowm not to have been the case. After care¬ 
fully removing the ribs on the right side, the pericardium and 
contents looked nearly as large as a full-sized bucket. Wishing 
to bring them out entire, and cutting cautiously on the abdo¬ 
minal side of the diaphragm so as to liberate the parts, my 
knife came suddenly upon some hard substance, w 7 hich w r as 
found to be a shawd pin. The head of the pin w 7 as just out¬ 
side the second stomach, commonly called the honey-comb, 
while the point had penetrated the diaphragm, and entered the 
left ventricle of the heart. The stomach w-as so nicely healed 
that not a trace of the pin having passed through it could be 
detected. It lay in a sort of channel formed by adhesions 
which held that portion of the diaphragm, the pericardium, 
and part of the left side of the heart intact. The pericardial 
sac was filled w ith a whey-like fluid, having an odour some¬ 
what offensive, and in it floated a quantity of loose flocculi 
