308 HEALTH AND DISEASE 



whom a limited portion of the liver has ceased to be of any functional 

 value, we should not condemn a case as hopeless until some remedial 

 measures have been tried. A course of saline medicine, preferably sulphate 

 of magnesia, followed by nitrohydrochloric acid and vegetable tonics, 

 should precede a long holiday in a good pasture. By these means there 

 is reason to suppose that the disease is sometimes arrested in its progress, 

 and a period of usefulness may ensue. The symptom of dropsy in the 

 young is not so formidable as in the stabled animal that has seen service, 

 and with a suitable dietary, medicaments may in such cases prove service- 

 able in restoring the function of the liver and exciting absorption of the 

 fluid which distends the abdomen. Fresh tops of the broom (ScojKtrii 

 cacumina) have the reputation of carrying away abdominal ascites, and 

 failing the plant we may use the decoction prepared according to the British 

 Pharmacopoeia. Tonics, by improving the general health, will afford assist- 

 ance in relieving the local ailment and of preventing further escape of fluid 

 into the belly. Absorbent and diuretic remedies undoubtedly carry away 

 existing accumulations, and should not be overlooked. Here iodide of 

 potassium and nitrate of potash may be employed either separately or 

 together. Tapping the abdomen and removing the fluid bodily is some- 

 times resorted to, but it is seldom of much use beyond affording temporary 

 relief, unless the liver trouble can at the same time be relieved. 



FATTY LIVER 



Definition. — Some amount of fat is always to be found in the cells 

 of the healthy liver, but the term fatty liver is used to express a morbid 

 state in which the cells have either accumulated large quantities of fat 

 within themselves from the blood (fatty infiltration), or in which the cell- 

 contents (protoplasm) have become changed into fat (fatty degeneration) 

 (fig. 111). 



Causes.— Fatty liver has no constant relation with any specific disease, 

 but it has sometimes been noted to follow on those profound congestions 

 which so frequently attend influenza fever. It is more commonly due 

 to unnatural conditions of life. It is not among the poor and overworked 

 that we look to find it, but in the pampered pet, kept artificially warm, 

 overfed on highly stimulating food, and insufficiently exercised. Brewers' 

 horses, for some reason or other, are specially liable to it. It is a condition 

 antecedent to and favouring rupture and apoplexy, and in its degenerative 

 form is always to be found in cirrhosis of the liver to a greater or less 

 extent. The indiscriminate use of condiments and spices are indirectly 

 responsible for many cases of this disease in the pampered show animal. 



