REPORTS OF OASES. 
513 
making a careful examination of the valves and the interior 
of the heart generally. No doubt there must have been ex¬ 
tensive endocardial lesions to produce such enormous de¬ 
posits. How the animal existed in apparently good health 
for a considerable length of time, which he seems to have 
done, under such conditions is, to say the least of it, some¬ 
what astonishing. The valves must have adapted themselves 
to the neoplasms so as to in a measure perform their func¬ 
tions. The lung affection was in my opinion secondary to 
the cardiac and brought about by overexertion, and the blood 
being partially dammed up in the lungs by the coagula pre¬ 
venting its free flow from these organs. The coagula were 
both organized and had undergone fatty degeneration, show¬ 
ing that they must have been in existence for some time. I 
had hoped to be able to get a microscopic section of the tis¬ 
sue, but have failed to do so in time. 
To me this case teaches a valuable lesson. That in all 
subjects with pulmonary trouble, the rule should be to aus¬ 
cultate the cardiac area, not that this animal’s life could have 
been saved by so doing, but the client could have been made 
aware of the probability of such an unfavorable termination 
before the cause was revealed on post-mortem. I think that, 
whenever practicable, autopsies should always be made ; they 
are invaluable to the practitioner by laying bare plain facts 
which often upset stereotyped theories, point out our short¬ 
comings and add to our general knowledge, besides fre¬ 
quently bringing about a substantial saving to our client, as 
in this case—the horse was in his owner’s possession for only 
ten or twelve days—having “posted” him. I was able to 
give my certificate that the animal died from the condition of 
the heart above alluded to, which must have been in exist¬ 
ence long before he was last purchased, with the result that 
my client had the half of the purchase price refunded. Had 
the post-mortem not been made, it would most likely have 
been presumed that the horse died from pneumonia, the 
owner would have lost the full price, with my fee added, 
which latter I may state was also refunded by the dealer. 
