JAUNDICE. 4 1 



proceeding then to enumerate the various phenomena 

 connected with Jaundice, we shall select as the basis of 

 our description that variety which owes its origin to a 

 mechanical impediment to the excretion of bile, such as 

 an obstruction in the common bile duct, as being the 

 most simple form, and being less apt to be interfered 

 with by disturbances of an extraneous nature. When 

 such an obstruction takes place, the bile first shows 

 itself after two or three days, by a yellow colour of the 

 conjunctivas; by a saffron-yellow, reddish-brown, dark- 



n, greenish-brown, or brownish-black colour of the 

 urine ; by yellowness of the skin ; by the exudation of 

 bile-pigment through the sweat glands particularly 

 those in the axillae which tinge the linen of a yellow 

 colour ; by a peculiar itchiness of the skin which is 

 especially troublesome in the night-time; by the eruption 

 of urticaria, lichen, boils, and sometimes carbuncles ; by 



igement of the general sensations, with great exhaus- 

 tion and debility, dejection of spirits, peevishness of 

 temper, headache, and giddiness ; sometimes by a bitter 



with a clean ; by a peculiar delusion of the 



sense of light, called Xanthopsy or yellow light all 



obje< y the patient are of a yellow colour ; by a 



retardation of the heart's action, which in its contraction 



falls to a greater or less extent below the normal 



in the majority of cases to 50 or 40 beats, and 



to still fewer. Frerichs records two cases, 



in one the beats were only 28, in the other as low as 21. 



: has met with three cases where the beats did 



not exceed 33 per minute. This is particularly noticed 



wlit-n tli< patient is in the recumbent posture. The 



cause of this slowness of pulse is supposed by some to 



