310 HEALTH AND DISEASE 



Causes. — These, with the exception of rare examples resulting from 

 external violence, may be said to originate in degenerative changes, by 

 which the gland is rendered soft as the result of its being partly con- 

 verted into fat from repeated attacks of congestion and other causes. 



Symptoms. — Rupture of the liver and capsule is attended with more 

 or less considerable bleeding. This will be evidenced by the pale, bloodless 

 appearance of the lining membranes of the eye, the nose, and the mouth. 

 Moreover, the eyes present a bright, glassy appearance, and the pupil is 

 widely dilated; the pulse is quickened and feeble, and ultimately becomes 

 indistinct. The skin and extremities become cold, and later on the animal 

 breaks out into patchy sweats. The upper lip is raised from time to time, 

 the patient sighs, obstinately stands, and later becomes unsteady in his 

 movements. The muscles of the limbs quiver, and ultimately fail to 

 support him, and he falls and dies. 



Treatment. — Treatment is of little avail in these cases. We may, 

 however, prescribe such agents as gallic acid, acetate of lead, and per- 

 chloride of iron, turpentine, &c, in the hope of arresting haemorrhage, 

 which is not impossible if the breach has not extended through the 

 capsule. Post-mortem examinations prove that these ruptures may take 

 place without fatal results when the investing membrane of the organ 

 is not broken, and the escaped blood is prevented from passing into the 

 abdominal cavity. 



ABDOMINAL ASCITES— DROPSY 



Definition. — An accumulation of serous or sero-fibrinous fluid within 

 the abdominal cavity. 



Causes. — Although an occasional sequel to peritonitis of a chronic 

 type, it is in most instances wholly unconnected with it. Young animals, 

 when pastured on low -lying marsh land through the cold months of 

 winter, and compelled, as some are, to live exclusively on the poor, 

 innutritious herbage which such soil affords, are frequently the subjects 

 of dropsy. The deleterious effects of such living are materially aggra- 

 vated by the absence of shelter and the cold, wet ground on which they 

 lie. These cases are the result of a disproportion between the fluid and 

 solid constituents of the blood, the ingestion of succulent innutritions 

 food for a long period causing an excess of the former over the latter. In 

 addition to this, a dropsical belly may be the result of chronic disease 

 going on in other organs, as the heart, the liver, and the kidneys. In the 

 heart it indicates some obstructive disorder interfering with the passage 

 of blood from the right to the left side, when the blood is thrown back on 



