498 
A. JilAUTARD. 
is that of nervous shock or moral influence, which plays so im¬ 
portant a part in the recovery of the patient. With the veterina¬ 
rian this Inst condition scarcely exists, if it does, and probably for 
this reason anaesthesia is not so commonly used. Probably, also, 
as the injuries that may accompany the operation of casting, such 
as broken back, being likely to take place while the anaesthetic 
is given, during the struggles of the first effects of the medical 
vapors, veterinarians hesitate also to have recourse to their bene¬ 
fits. There are, however, peculiar conditions where it becomes a 
necessity, and in which neglect of employing it might give rise to 
severe complications. Amongst those are* the operations which, 
at times, rare as they may be, are performed upon the eyes, or in 
cases of hernia. But if the ordinary sequelae of casting are also 
likely to be met when the anaesthetic is given, there are other 
complications which the veterinarian may meet, and against which, 
often, he has but little control, no matter how careful ho may 
have been. Amongst these is the condition of syncope, which 
may suddenly take place, especially if the patient is suffering with 
some diseased condition of the heart, which has possibly escaped 
notice, or which, on account of some peculiar condition, could not 
be detected. Hypertrophy of the heart with fatty degeneration 
of its muscular structure is probably the most common condition 
in which the closest examination remains useless and fails to re¬ 
veal the true state of affairs. The truth of the possibility of such 
condition, and of its fatal result, is illustrated in the report which 
we publish to-day from the pen of house surgeon Hr. Kemp, in 
which an animal lost his life from syncope during the adminis¬ 
tration of a small quantity of ether, due to a fatty degeneration 
of the heart, with hypertrophy of the whole organ, a diseased 
state which was not suspected, though careful examination of the 
condition of the circulatory apparatus had been made in this 
rather vicious animal. 
t 
FILARIA OCULI—FATTY HEART—SYNCOPE AND DEATH DURING 
ADMINISTRATION OF ETHER. 
By J. S. Kemp, D.V.S., House Surgeon. 
On November 21st, a bay gelding, eight years of age, sixteen 
hands high, was brought to the clinic, exhibiting in the anterior 
