EXTENSIVE DISEASE OF THE HEART. 
451 
deposit of lymph on the surfaces of the pericardium was 
quite as extensive. 
It is stated in the above letter that the filly from which 
the morbid specimen was taken had never thriven so well as 
the other animals which were with her. This may have been 
the case,but I have not been able to detect anything in the parts 
sent me which would account for such a phenomenon. The 
walls of the heart were naturally developed ; its valves per¬ 
fect, and free from any accretion on their surfaces; disease, 
however, may have existed in some other organs, which, 
although not detected, might not only interfere with the health 
of the filly, but would also predispo.se her to inflammation of 
the pericardium. A tendency to rheumatism, which could 
not, of course, have been detected by a post-mortem examina¬ 
tion, is said to be a most fruitful cause of inflammation of the 
pericardium in the human subject, and also of the endo¬ 
cardium and tendinous rings of the auriculo-ventricular 
openings, and I see no reason why it should not also be a 
predisposing cause in the lower animals. 
The brief history Mr. Fuller gives of the case leads to the 
conclusion that the cold the filly was labouring under about 
a month before her death was the exciting cause of this attack. 
This view seems to be confirmed by the post-mortem appear¬ 
ances ; as the character of the deposition, both on the sur¬ 
face of the serous membrane and also beneath it, would fairly 
correspond with the length of time the filly lived after having 
contracted this cold. 
The symptoms of pericarditis, as I have before stated, are 
often so very ambiguous, and so insiduous in their progress, 
that they are likely to be mistaken for pleurisy or endocar¬ 
ditis* Although there are indications of pain, expressed by 
an anxious countenance in particular, still, as the poor animal 
cannot direct our attention to the especial seat of suffering by 
words, we have not the same opportunity of making a correct 
diagnosis of such cases as the human practitioner has. 
It appears that Mr. Fuller was not called in to attend the 
case, but only to make a post-mortem examination. If the filly 
had been under his care from the period of her original attack 
of illness, he would, without doubt, have been able to have 
given a description of the symptoms in each stage of the 
disease. This would have been very valuable, even in a sta¬ 
tistical point of view, for in diseases that are difficult to dia¬ 
gnose, an account of the symptoms, honestly and accurately 
described, cannot fail to be of the greatest value, especially 
to the junior practitioner, in determining the nature of a 
disease. In veterinary practice there are great difficulties 
