514 
DISEASE OF THIS HEART AND INTESTINES. 
stood by at the time and the man who rode him both heard 
the sound. 
Still a few days further on, the owner again requested me 
to make another examination. The horse was again ridden by 
the same man, and again no sound could be elicited. At the 
owner’s request I rode the horse to the veterinary surgeon 
who had lately discovered the unsoundness, w r hen he submitted 
him to another examination, and failed to induce a repetition 
of the sounds he had previously distinctly heard. Under 
these circumstances legal proceedings were stayed, otherwise 
we should have had, not merely two veterinary surgeons giving 
different opinions, a thing by no means uncommon, but a 
high veterinary authority asserting the animal to be sound 
now which he condemned as a roarer a week ago. In this 
case there was nothing to account for the temporary existence 
of roaring; the horse was in good health, and was kept long 
enough for any cold or sore throat to have subsided or 
become worse, but without any change that could be detected. 
He continued at intervals to “roar,” and then steadfastly re¬ 
fused to make the slightest noise for days, notwithstanding 
any amount of provocation. 
It may be urged that a few extraordinary cases should not 
affect a general system of practice; but it is doubtful if these 
cases are solitary, or even very rare. The frequent difference 
of opinion about a point that should not, in the common 
course of things, be open to any doubt, rather leads to the 
conclusion that the cause lies in the nature of the subject 
investigated, instead of in the method of the examination ; in 
any case it is important that the profession and the"public 
should remember that these peculiarities do present them¬ 
selves, and not, therefore, be dreadfully scandalised if now 
and then Mr. A. condemns a horse as a roarer which Mr. 
B. yesterday passed sound; because such things have 
happened, and most certainly will again, until pathology 
shall become, what it is not yet, a mathematical science. 
DISEASE OF THE HEART AND INTESTINES 
COMPLICATED WITH EFFUSION. 
By J. Tombs, M.R.C.V.S., Stratford-upon-Avon. 
This patient was a black gelding. When I first saw him, 
September 4th, 1863, the scrotum was swollen from some 
kind of strangulation in it; the parts were cold; no pulse 
