HEART DISEASE. 
275 
Society without either fee or examination.” It is only 
assistants who are expected to undergo an examination. 
Now^ before we apply this principle to our own profession, 
we must bear in mind that 7iearly all chemists and druggists 
are necessarily educated and respectable men, while there 
are many farriers and coAvleeches who cannot write their own 
names. Such men as these should not he admitted unless, 
indeed, they can pass a good oral and practical examination, but 
those who have received a good education, and can produce 
certificates of character and competency, should be registered 
in the same way as the chemists and druggists. 
HEART DISEASE.—PARTIAL OCCLUSION OF 
THE RIGHT AURICULO-VENTRICULAR OPEN- 
' ING BY A TUMOUR. 
By Andrew Simpson, M.R.C.V.S., Kendal. 
The study of this department of pathology as a speciality 
or even in common with general pathology, does not occupy 
much of the time of the veterinary surgeon, nor is much 
space occupied in the literature of the profession recording 
any advance that has been made in this direction. It cannot 
be that this non-recognition of a class of diseases in veteri¬ 
nary nosology depends upon the infrequency of their occur¬ 
rence, nor upon the little interest which they possess for the 
veterinarian. It may never be possible, perhaps, for the 
practitioner of veterinary medicine to arrive at so precise a 
knowledge of the various morbid conditions to which this im¬ 
portant organ is liable, as the members of the sister profession 
can obtain, for very obvious reasons. Auscultation in our 
patients is not so satisfactory as in theirs, from physical pecu¬ 
liarity, difference of position, &c., nor can our subjects give us 
any hint that they have a ‘‘ bad heartbut, notwithstanding 
such difficulties, I think we have means of assisting us to a 
practically correct diagnosis of such affections. We can by 
careful observation and intelligent interpretation of symptoms, 
in this and in all other morbid phenomena, speak with con¬ 
siderable certainty. We have besides opportunities, which the 
human practitioner often desires in vain, of verifying our 
diagnosis in the ample scope we have of examinations post¬ 
mortem. I often think that if we are precluded from consulting 
with our patients as to their ills, this opportunity we have of 
