erate quantity of water;
the left, scarcely any. The lungs were firm, condensed, and dark
coloured, from venous blood. The pleura, on the left side opposite to
the pericardium, appeared to have been inflamed, as there was an
effusion of coagulated lymph on its surface.

The pericardium was much distended with water. The heart, on the
anterior surface of which were some appearances of inflammation, was
very much enlarged. Its parietes were thickened; its cavities
unnaturally large, and filled with black coagulum. Each of the valves
had lost, in some degree, its usual smoothness, and those of the aorta
were, in some points, thickened, and partly cartilaginous.

The liver was small, and, when cut, poured out dark blood. Its tunic
was whitish, opaque, and corrugated.

CASE V.

A. B. a negro, about thirty-five years of age, had paroxysms of
dyspnoea and violent cough, attended with oedema of the extremities
and ascites, violent head-ache, dizziness, brightness of the eyes,
palpitations of the heart, irregular, intermittent, slow, and soft
pulse. These symptoms slowly increased, during three or four years, in
which time the dropsical collections were repeatedly dispersed. He
gradually and quietly died in the alms-house, in January, 1809.

DISSECTION.

On dissection, the cavities of the pleura were found to contain a
considerable quantity of water. The pericardium was filled with water;
the heart considerably enlarged; its parietes very thin, and its
cavities, especially the right auricle and ventricle, morbidly
large[9].

[Footnote 9: This dissection was performed by Dr. Gorham.]

CASE VI.

Mrs. M'Clench, a washer-woman, forty-eight years of age, of good
constitution and regular habits, was attacked, in the summer of 1808,
with palpitations of the heart and dyspnoea on going up stairs, severe
head-ache, and discharges of blood from the anus. These symptoms did
not excite much attention. In the winter of 1808-9, all of them
increased, except the palpitations. The inferior extremities and
abdomen became distended with water; the region of the liver painful;
the skin quite yellow; the pulse was hard, regular, and vibrating; the
countenance very florid. Violent cough followed, and blood was
profusely discharged from the lungs. This discharge being suppressed,
evacuations of blood from the anus ensued, under which she