HEART DISEASE. 
751 
convalescent, and believed that with care in feeding the cure 
would be complete in a few days. The fact is, there was no 
improvement at all in the condition of my patient, and that the 
decrease of the fever and of the pain, the better appetite, were 
due to the commencement of the exudative process. Such 
apparent improvement is always present in all inflammations 
of the serous membranes when exudation begins. Medical 
attendance was discontinued. Four days after, I was called 
by telephone and informed that my patient was much 
worse, that she was swelled at the neck and chest. I was at 
once fixed upon the nature of the disease, and 1 knew that I 
had all the while treated a case of pericarditis for one of gas¬ 
tritis. ' 
1 hastened to see the cow, and found her in a pitiful state, 
temperature 105°, respiration 60, pulse small and weak, 90; 
large swelling of the posterior half of the neck, the chest, be¬ 
tween the fore legs. The heart was auscultated on both sides, 
but its beatings could not be heard. Respiratory murmur 
present and rather strong in both lungs. The diagnosis is 
now easily made and told to the owners: pericarditis , prob¬ 
ably caused by a traumatism, with fatal results. I advised 
slaughtering. 
May 14.—Eleven days passed without any news of the 
case, when, on May 14, I was informed by telephone that 
the cow was going to be slaughtered, and asked if I would 
like to make the autopsy. Since my last visit she had grown 
gradually worse; the swelling invaded all the neck, the throat, 
chest, belly, sides as high up as the superior third of the ribs. 
Hardly any food had been taken during the last eight or nine 
days; she was reduced to the state of a skeleton. 
Autopsy .—Large quantity of serous liquid under the skin 
covering the swelled parts and in the tissues of these parts; 
abdomen contained about fifteen gallons of a yellowish liquid, 
the organs contained in that cavity were almost bloodless, other¬ 
wise sound. The chest contained about ten gallons of this se¬ 
rous liquid. The pericardium was yellowish-white, a quarter 
of an inch thick, contained about one gallon of a thick, white, 
purulent liquid. The heart was atrophied to about half its 
