102 TREATMENT OF DISEASES 



elaborates febrine from albumen, and fat from sugar, and sugar from 

 fat. Tiie fact in relation to these agents, sugar and fat, is, they do 

 not materially differ in their chemical composition, only that one con- 

 tains a little more oxygen than the other ; and, from satisfactory 

 data, we are led to infer that the liver occasionally stores up fatty 

 matter, or sugar, for the day of adversity, or starvation day, so that 

 when the system has no other means of obtaining it the liver must 

 supply it, or yield up what it contains of fatty matter. 



The circulation of the liver is a very interesting matter for the 

 investigation of amateurs and inquirers. The liver, like other organs 

 of the body, is supplied with arterial blood, from the great aorta, 

 for its own support and nourishment, and it also receives an immense 

 amount of venous blood from veins commencinor in the sastro-intesti- 

 nal cavities, terminating m a vessel known as the voia portce, or "gate 

 vein." Portce is derived from the Latin, which signifies "gate," or 

 " entrance." The vena portce, on entering the liver, ramifies in vari- 

 ous directions like the common arteries of the body, and ultimately 

 terminates in veins peculiar to the liver. Hence, it will be perceived 

 that the venous blood, instead of being permitted to return directly 

 from the stomach and intestines to the heart, is compelled to complete 

 the circuit of circulation through the liver, and by this peculiar 

 arrangement the transformations alluded to are effected. The liver, 

 therefore, performs the double function of excretion and secretion y 

 secretes gall or " bile," and excretes carbon and hydrogen from the 

 system. 



As REGARDS THE DISEASES OP THE LivER. It is probablc that 

 the liver often becomes diseased in consequence of overfeeding; it 

 is well known that the livers of men and animals can be artificially 

 enlarged, by cramming either with an unnecessary amount of food; 

 favorite dishes are often prepared from the livers of geese artificially 

 enlarged, by stufting the animal with food, and at the same time con- 

 fining it in a dark room without exercise. We learn that under such 

 barbarous management there is a disproportion between the oxygen 

 respired in the lungs, and the carbon introduced into the system in 

 the form of food. An excess of carbonaceous material in the sys- 

 tem of man or horse, is apt to affect the integrity of the liver and 

 develop the condition known as jaundice, and this cause is more 

 certainly operative in the systems of animals of the bilious tempera- 

 ment. 



Jaundice, as it occurs among horses, is usually a functional disor- 

 der, yet should it remain unrelieved for some lapse of time, and the 

 same errors of diet and management be continued, the chances are 

 in favor of its ending in structural disease. Occasionally the bile 

 thickens and accumulates in its ducts, and leads to the formation of 

 gall stones, which finally occasion the death of the subject. 



The principal symptoms of liver disease are a yellow tinge of the 

 visible surfaces ; languid pulse ; dull, sleepy appearance ; urine high- 

 colored ; excrement dark-colored ; bowels constipated, tfec. t&c. 



Common salt is a valuable agent in preventing bilious diseases, for 

 salt undergoes oxydation in the system and forms soda, and this soda 

 is employed in the formation of bile. Bile consists of carbon, hy- 

 drogen and soda; its carbon and hydi'ogen are the carbon and 



