€98 CHRONIC DISEASES OF THE LIVER. 



•condition, sucli tonics as ox-gall, or nitro-muriatic acid, may- 

 bo tried. While, when pain over the right side is present, 

 warm-water applications, followed by inunction of iodine oint- 

 ment, are likely to benefit. 



The appearance of ascites must be met with the employ- 

 ment of tonic and diuretic medicines ; or, when the quantity 

 of fluid is excessive, it may be removed by tapping. 



II. Fatty Liver. 



The term ' fatty liver ' is often employed to include both the 

 condition of simple fatty infiltration, and that of true fatty 

 degeneration. • 



In a normal condition the hepatic cells contain a certain 

 amount of oil. In the so-called fatty liver, however, the 

 amount is materially increased, not temporarily, but con- 

 stantly ; this crowding with oil-globules displacing the natural 

 contents, obscuring the nuclei, and impairing their natural 

 activity. This occupation of the cells with ftitty material, 

 even when extensive, may not always produce increase of bulk 

 in the liver, although it frequently does so. In appearance it 

 is somewhat changed, being of a light fawni- colour, less clearly 

 thinned at the edges ; and when the condition is extensive 

 iind well-established, giving to it a rather greasy feeling, with 

 an absence of toughness or resisting power. In specific 

 gravity it may be less than normal, although more bulky, and 

 is always, in this respect, distinctly lower than when aft'ected 

 with albuminoid changes. 



This condition of fatty change is said in man to be often 

 associated with pulmonary phthisis and other organic changes ; 

 in the horse, Avith the exception of its existence where other 

 fatty infiltrations and changes exist, it does not appear to be 

 intimately related to any particular organic disease or specific 

 fever. 



It is often enough encountered in animals which have for 

 long periods been kept in a rather artificial and confined state, 

 much pampered with nutritious and rather stimulating food, 

 and which have been used for show or pleasure rather than 

 work. In many horses so circumstanced, stabled in habitually- 

 overheated dwellings, fed highly, and only moderately exer- 



