352 MORBID ANATOMY.
extending through to the spine, and continuing until he died at 4J p. M. on the following day. He was unable to lie down, and during the night there was vomiting.
Two or three ounces of blood were found in the pericar- dium ; and the aorta was ruptured just above the valves, and to the extent of about two-thirds of its circumference. The internal coats had given way, and the blood had dis- sected a passage for itself as far as the internal iliacs, where the inner coat of the right iliac again ruptured, and the blood had returned into its proper channel. The branches from the arch were also dissected. This dis- section of the aorta involved mostly the posterior parietes of the aorta, and nearly or quite one-half of its circum- ference ; the fibres of the middle coat being seen upon both surfaces along the false passage. The tissues of the artery were nowhere much diseased ; and apparently quite healthy at the place of rupture, though there was an ap- pearance near it as of an old laceration that had been cica- trized. (Amer. Jour, of Med. Sc., Oct. 1848, p. 300.) 1848. Dr. J. B. S. Jackson.
1766. A third specimen. This case and the last occurring within thirteen days of each other. From a patient of Dr. B. E. Cotting ; sixty years of age, and a healthy-looking man, though dyspeptic. Ate heartily of ham at breakfast, to which he was not accustomed, and again at noon. In the evening he had nausea, and took an emetic ; but noth- ing unusual occurred until about 2 A. M., when his wife was awoke by his oppressed breathing, and he soon died.
The cavity of the pericardium contained about six ounces of fluid and blood ; and in the aorta was a lacera- tion, about half way between the valves and the arch, through the entire thickness of the vessel, and extending spirally so as to more than involve its circumference. The pericardium is stripped up from the anterior face of the aorta, and forms a large cavity that was filled with blood, and finally burst. In structure the asc. aorta was almost perfectly healthy, and the desc. portion only mod- erately diseased ; the edges of the laceration being as smooth as if cut with a knife. The heart and other organs
�� �
