PERICARDITIS IN A COW. 
87 
slightly flattened. The same is also the case when the brain is 
wholly taken out of its osseous case, and placed on a plane sur¬ 
face. In the case in question, however, the upper surface of the 
cerebrum remained without any flattening taking place; a 
peculiarity so well marked that it did not fail to attract the 
attention of those present. This fact at once suggested the 
probability of there being something abnormal in its interior, 
which not only prevented the collapse taking place, but also 
produced persistent pressure upon the walls of the ventricles. 
In other respects the brain, as viewed externally, appeared to 
be healthy, with the exception that the vessels of i\\e pia mater 
were unusually full of blood. 
The falx cerebri, loose tissue, and blood-vessels, being 
removed from the longitudinal fissure, the upper part of 
each hemisphere was next sliced off on a level with the corpus 
callosum, and the lateral ventricles exposed by taking off their 
roof, which brought to light the cause both of the symptoms 
and the death of the animal. In each lateral ventricle a 
pear-shaped body, about two inches and a quarter in length, 
and of average diameter of about three quarters of an inch, 
was found. The ventricles also contained more than the 
usual quantity of fluid, which was of a deep-straw colour. 
On further examination of these bodies they were found to 
be connected with the choroid plexus, and structurally they 
consisted of earthy and albuminous matter, deposited in and 
upon the rete of blood-vessels of which the plexus is composed. 
The pressure which these tumours had imparted to the sur¬ 
rounding walls of the ventricles had caused absorption of the 
brain-substance to an extent corresponding, or nearly so, 
with their own size. This pressure also was, without doubt, 
the cause of the symptoms manifested by the animal, and 
which, as before stated, were perfectly diagnostic of cerebral 
disease. 
PERICARDITIS IN A COW, PRODUCED BY THE 
PRESENCE OF A NEEDLE IN THE PERICAR¬ 
DIAL SAC. 
By T. D. Hulme, Veterinary Student. 
I SEND you by to-nlght^s train a specimen of what I con¬ 
sider to be a rare disease, viz., pericarditis associated with 
great thickness of the pericardial membrane, and effusion into 
the sac. 
The case occurred in a milch cow, the property of my 
