DISEASES OF THE LIVER 565 



a. Lit of cork. The calculus in tlio horse is formed in a similar way. Tlio 

 nucleus in Mr. Carter's specimen is a bit of flint ; in a capital instance I 

 have in my own collection, of a common shot, about No. 5 size, which has 

 been crushed by the horse's teeth, and subsequently swallowed ; in another 

 instance, of a chair nail of brass ; in another of a single oat-seed ; in another 

 of a minute bit of cinder, and so on, as it seems to be absolutely necessary 

 that these calculi should have a commencement — a starting-point. Where 

 is the school-boy who can make a gigantic snowball without beginning with 

 a small lump of snow or a stone, as a nucleus upon which he builds all the 

 rest? 



" Mr. Carter seems to wonder at the weight of the specimen, 5 lbs. ; this 

 is by no means a large size ; in the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons 

 we have a very fine collection of calculi ; the largest, taken from the intes- 

 tines of a horse, weighs no less than 17 lbs., and is about the size and shape 

 of an ordinary skittle-ball. In the case where this is contained he will see 

 many other specimens, cut in sections to show the nuclei ; he will observe 

 that calculi also form in the intestines of the camel and of the elephant, and 

 even in the wild horse, for there is a good specimen from the intestines of a 

 Japanese wild horse. Stones, not true calculi, are sometimes found iir 

 animals, which have been actually swallowed by them, and have not been 

 chemically formed in this walking laboratory. There is a case containing 

 several pebbles — thirty in number — found in the stomach of a cow at 

 Barton-under-Needwood, Burton-on-Trent. These stones belong to the 

 geological formation of the neighbourhood ; it is curious to see how they 

 have been acted on by the action of the stomach, for they are highly glazed 

 and polished. I have seen specimens of gravel pebbles which I took from 

 the gizzard of an ostrich, which are as highly polished as an agate marble. 

 The bird swallowed the stones to assist its digestion ; the cow out of a 

 morbid appetite. I know of a somewhat similar instance that lately 

 happened : A young lady was taken ill, and died of very strange s}Tnptoms ; 

 it was subsequently ascertained that the stomach was quite filled with human 

 hair, which had moulded itself into the shape of the interior of that organ. 

 The poor girl had naturally very long and beautiful hair, and she had an 

 unfortunate habit of catching the loose hairs with her lips and swallowing 

 them ; in time they felted together, became a solid mass, and killed her — 

 a warning to other young ladies which should not be neglected. In the 

 lower animals we frequently find rolled balls of hair from the creatures 

 licking themselves. I have seen one at Bristol from a lioness ; it is formed 

 of hairs licked with her rough tongue from her cubs. Curious concretiom 

 are found in goats, etc., called 'bezoar' stones ; they were formerly supposed 

 to have medicinal virtues : of this at another time. 



"R T. BUCKLAND." 



DISEASES OF THE LIVER 



The farmer's horse and those subsisting largely upon grass are rarely 

 subject to liver diseases, but the corn-fed and stalled horse of towns 

 participates in the evils of town-life in common with his master. Not only 

 do we stimulate our horses with excessive quantities of nitrogenous food, 



