HYPERTROPHY OP THE HEART. 
199 
sumed its usual appearance: in short, the animal was 
apparently restored to health the next day, and was soon put to 
gentle farm-work. In the course of the week I was again 
sent for in a hurry. I found the symptoms more urgent 
than before—pulsation twenty only, and laboured; jugular 
veins conveying their contents by jerks; eyes sightless; 
nervous centre deranged; staggering and falling incessantly; 
total loss of control. 
In consequence of the age of the animal I advised the 
owner to have him shot, to which he assented, and I pro¬ 
ceeded to make a post-mortem examination. After the in¬ 
tegument was removed from the abdomen and fore and hind 
extremities, to the great consternation of two men who were 
assisting, the animal kicked one of them down, showing the 
effect of the knife upon muscular fibre a quarter of an hour 
after death had apparently taken place. All the viscera were 
healthy except the heart, which was enlarged to double 
its natural size; every portion of the muscular structure had 
grown regularly and evenly, and its colour was natural; the 
right ventricle, however, was slightly dilated. And here I 
may remark that I never examined the heart of a horse 
without meeting dilatation to some extent in that part 
of it. 
In the April number of the tf Veterinary Record^ for 1847 
will be found several cases of dilatation recorded by me. 
Since that time I have seen a vast number of cases of disease 
of the heart; most of them possess two symptoms in par¬ 
ticular, viz.,—either partial or total loss of sight for the time 
being; the standing posture is doggedly maintained—the 
respiration analogous to that of a horse with broken wind. 
A-propos “of broken wind.” I have read of parties curing 
this malady,—and men, too, of high standing as veterinary 
surgeons: I may with as much truth assert that I also have 
cured a great many cases of broken wind. The fact is, in ail 
cases of affections of the heart in the horse I have met 
with, the respiratory apparatus is so much influenced by the 
action of the heart that in the majority of cases broken wind 
appears to be the disease in question. But I think, with a 
very little more attention and observation on the part of 
those who are noted for curing broken wind, they will find 
that the lungs are merely functionally deranged ; it is the 
heart alone that is affected. In the same way with regard 
to vision. We find that a great many cases of blindness are 
only sympathetic; remove the cause, the obstruction in the 
stomach or heart, as the case may be, and we shall find that 
sight will be again restored. With as much truth we should 
