326 
CHRONIC DISEASE OF THE HEART. 
was no contraction, and the heels were wide and the frog 
well developed; there was, moreover, not the least unnatural 
heat present. As he had a slight bony enlargement round 
each pastern, I was more inclined to suspect his lameness 
arose from that cause than from navicular disease. 
In about two months afterwards I was again requested to 
look at the horse, but not on account of lameness, but in 
consequence of his rapidly losing condition, without appa¬ 
rently sufficient cause. He had always been a bad feeder, 
and especially after a day’s hunting, when he would remain 
off his feed for a day or two. Besides this, latterly he had 
become unusually irritable, and had almost altogether ceased 
caring for his food. 
The doctor, who is very fond of a little amateur veterinary 
practice, had been putting him through a course of calomel, 
from which salivation had resulted, as was evidenced by his 
discoloured gums and fetid breath. By the most careful 
examination I could find no satisfactory evidence of disease 
in any vital organ. The pulse was feeble and somewhat 
quick, but this I attributed to the salivation the animal had 
undergone. His owner told me he suspected the horse was 
suffering from disease of the heart; and that, judging from 
analogy, he thought it not improbable that the lameness 
proceeded from that cause, for in the human subject a dis¬ 
eased heart would often cause a numbness of the extremi¬ 
ties, and sometimes be accompanied by pain. This being a 
view of the matter quite new to me, I did not agree with it, 
and the doctor himself confessed that it was only an hypo¬ 
thesis which had sprung up in his mind in reflecting on 
the cause of the lameness. Mild tonics were prescribed, 
and as soon afterwards as possible the horse was turned out 
to grass, when he soon rapidly gained flesh and his lame¬ 
ness almost entirely disappeared. When he again came into 
the stable a discharge of a very unhealthy character was 
observed to be coming from one nostril, and upon a close 
examination, one or two ulcers were seen upon the Schnei¬ 
derian membrane. An enlargement of the submaxillary and 
parotid glands on that side was also present. 
A few nights after this, a profuse discharge of blood took 
place from the nostril, and which, although soon arrested at 
the time, returned, in diminished quantities, at intervals of a 
da} r or two. Taking into consideration his almost valueless 
state, as most of his former symptoms of disease were re¬ 
turning, I recommended that he should be destroyed, and 
this was done on the following day. 
Owing to a misunderstanding as to the time of making 
