Rupture of the left ventricle, with attenuation of its muscular structure. (St. B. 18).
Rupture, without attenuation, but with softening and looseness of texture in the muscular substance. (St. B. 22).
[18] Harvey, Exercit. altera.
[19] Rupture of the left ventricle without change in its structure. Bone deposited at the commencement of the aorta. (St. B. 27).
In turning over the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences, I find two cases of rupture of the heart, reported by M. Morand. They both occurred in the year 1730; and, strange to say, one was that of a Duchess of Brunswick, who was of the same family as George II. who also died of a ruptured heart. In the one, that of the Duchess, there was a manifest ulceration through the walls of the right ventricle, its structure being otherwise unimpaired; in the other, where the aperture was in the left ventricle, there was probably a simple rupture, for the flesh of the heart was so soft that the point of a probe would pass through it wherever it was rested. (Mem. de l'Acad. Roy. des Sciences, Ann. 1732).
[20] The trial as published in the Lancet occupied less than 21 pages—in the Gazette it extended, in the same type, to 33 pages and a half. In the Lancet, those parts, both of the evidence and speeches, which told most against Wakley, were omitted.
[21] [See passage in Italics, page 137.]
[22] The defendant, on leaving the court, was cheered by the populace in Palace Yard.—Lancet, Dec. 20.
[23] This we believe is false; nothing of the kind either occurred, or was stated at the trial.—E. G.