1st. Deposits of Glanders. In many cases of glanders and farcy in horses the specific product is deposited in the heart as well as in other internal organs. Such deposits are small but numerous, infiltrating the muscular tissue; their cut surface is dry, finely granular and of a yellowish white color.
2d. Abscesses are sometimes formed in the heart from the colonization of microbes from suppurating surfaces.
3d. Cancer of the heart has been noticed chiefly in dogs by Leblanc. It occurs only consecutively to cancer in other parts of the body, yet it has sometimes acquired considerable dimensions and interfered materially with the movements of the heart.
4th. Melanosis of the heart has been repeatedly noticed in the horse. Some if not all such cases should be classed with cancers, as these internal deposits of black coloring matter in solipedes, have, in our experience, mostly possessed malignant characters, though they are usually simple tumors as developed in the skin of the horse. These black masses usually project beneath the pericardium or endocardium.
5th. Tuberculous deposits have been met with in the substance of the heart in cases in which the lungs or other organ were the seat of this disease.
6th. The fibrous growths or polypi due to the deposition and organization of fibrinous material from the blood have been referred to under endocarditis.
7th. Gamgee reports the existence of a vascular tumour of the right ventricle of a horse in the museum of the Turin Veterinary School. It consisted of varicose veins ramifying beneath the endocardium which in its turn was healthy.
8th. The parasites found in the heart are various, a. One, the Echinococcus Veterinorum, has been repeatedly found in the substance of the heart or projecting from its inner or outer surface. b. Another, the cysticercus tenuicollis, has been met with in the pericardial sac of a calf (Reed). c. A third, the cysticercus cellulosa infests the muscular structure of the heart of measly pigs. d. The heart like other voluntary muscles of hogs occasionally contains trichina spiralis. e. Rainey’s cysts (sarcocysts) are microscopic ovoid bodies usually found in the hearts of oxen and other animals. f. A round worm, filaria immitis, first described as filaria papillosa hæmatica by Delafond and Gruby, lives in the blood of the dog, is one millimeter thick by fifteen to 30 centimeters long. It may obstruct the pulmonary artery (Serres) or the mitral orifice (Silvestre). It may cause various nervous disorders and even sudden death. Its mode of entrance is unknown. g. Strongylus Subulatus, 1 to 2 mm. long by 70 to 90 μ. in thickness was found in numbers in a nodule of a dog’s lung, and the dorsal vein of the penis of a dog (Leisering). h. Strongylus Vasorum in the right auricle and ventricle of a dog, in pea-like blood clots. It is 14 to 21 mm. long by 1 m. in thickness (Serres).
RUPTURE OF THE HEART.
In the lower animals ruptures of the heart have been observed as the result of (a) extraordinary exertion, (b) violent concussion, and (c) ulceration and degeneration. The rupture of the fatty heart in the lower animals is not common.